Stop riding with the brakes on

We fear failure more than we love life, so we refuse the great adventure. We are careful to do only what we have always done and know how to do well, so we never break the dull repetition of the old routine for the new creation of God. Crawl out of these tombs and prisons - there is a world of light and freedom waiting!

Have faith in God and let life be free. Stop riding with the brakes on. The soul will never grow tied down in a bed with the shades drawn. The higher we build the barricades of caution to protect ourselves, the deeper grows the grave we call our life.

Articles of Interest about Literature, Journalism, Writing & Languages – Jan 3

***WRITING & READING

The Best Books Of 2019, According To Everyone https://digg.com/2019/best-books-2019-trick-mirror-nickel-boys-say-nothing

The 2010s were supposed to bring the ebook revolution. It never quite came. https://www.vox.com/culture/2019/12/23/20991659/ebook-amazon-kindle-ereader-department-of-justice-publishing-lawsuit-apple-ipad

How to Use Zotero and Scrivener for Research-Driven Writing https://daily.jstor.org/how-to-use-zotero-and-scrivener-for-research-driven-writing  

We Learned to Write the Way We Talk (Opinion) https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/12/27/opinion/sunday/internet-writing-text-emotion.html

Science is science writing; science writing is science https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2019/12/29/science-is-science-writing-science-writing-is-science/

Bookstore suspends sales of Sociology textbook during plagiarism claims https://www.richmond-news.com/news/kpu-bookstore-suspends-textbook-sales-during-plagiarism-claims-1.24041139

***GRAMMAR

62 Grammar Memes And Jokes From 2019 https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/emersonmalone/grammar-language-memes-punctuation-2019

Correct Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/sarahschweppecopy/quibbles-bits-newsletter-buzzfeed-copydesk-corrections

***JOURNALISM 

The Most Engaging Stories of 2019 https://blog.chartbeat.com/2019/12/18/most-engaging-stories-2019/

News deserts will proliferate — but so will new solutions https://www.niemanlab.org/2019/12/news-deserts-will-proliferate-but-so-will-new-solutions/

‘Stunning piece of propaganda’: Journalists blast One America News series https://www.politico.com/news/2019/12/19/journalists-blast-one-america-news-series-giuliani-087893

***THE BUSINESS OF JOURNALISM

More Than 1 in 5 U.S. Papers Has Closed. This Is the Result https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/21/reader-center/local-news-deserts.html

California Writers, Photogs Sue State Over New Law That Chokes Freelance Journalism http://sacobserver.com/2020/01/california-writers-photogs-sue-state-over-new-law-that-chokes-freelance-journalism/

***STUDENT MEDIA

The Future of the News Industry, According to Student Journalists  https://www.teenvogue.com/story/student-journalists-future-news

New Mexico  Journalism Department rebuked by professional organizations  https://www.dailylobo.com/article/2019/12/unm-journalism-department-criticized-by-spj-nahj

University of New Mexico clashing with student journalists over public records https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/unm-clashing-with-student-journalists-over-public-records/article_a2c8be9c-28c5-11ea-9d01-ab9b78430600.html

***FAKES & FRAUDS

Snopes, Facebook And Fake Accounts https://www.npr.org/2019/12/22/790553909/snopes-facebook-and-fake-accounts

Lithuanians are using software to fight back against fake news  https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2019/10/24/lithuanians-are-using-software-to-fight-back-against-fake-news

Social media hosted a lot of fake health news this year. Here's what went most viral.  https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/social-media-hosted-lot-fake-health-news-year-here-s-n1107466

Chief Justice Warns of Internet Disinformation, Urges Civics Educationhttps://ijr.com/chief-justice-warns-of-internet-disinformation-urges-civics-education/

Stop abbreviating 2020. Police say it leaves you open to fraud and could cost you big https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/01/02/do-not-abbreviate-year-2020-in-date/2795857001/

***SOCIAL MEDIA 

From Instagram to TikTok: How social media evolved this decade https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/19/tech/social-media-end-of-decade/index.html

Twitter And Facebook's Race To The Bottom https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/alexkantrowitz/twitter-and-facebooks-race-to-the-bottom

How to beat your social media addiction, according to a therapist https://www.cnet.com/how-to/the-right-way-to-beat-your-social-media-addiction-according-to-a-therapist/

This dad took his son to Mongolia just to get him off his phone https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-50830944

***LANGUAGE

3 internet language trends from 2019, explained http://theconversation.com/3-internet-language-trends-from-2019-explained-128588

World's languages describe emotions in very different ways https://www.latimes.com/science/story/2019-12-19/emotions-universal-languages-differ

Teaching a computer Chinese made it excellent at English https://qz.com/1775729/baidus-chinese-language-algorithm-is-excellent-at-english/

Google Assistant Can Now Translate Speech Through Your Phone https://www.wired.com/story/google-assistant-can-now-translate-on-your-phone/

A translation crisis at the border  https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/01/06/a-translation-crisis-at-the-border

Books examine how words influence American culture  https://www.roanoke.com/entertainment/arts/review-books-examine-how-words-influence-american-culture/article_6abedf12-2eae-5f57-b0d9-2f9cbe95948d.html

***LITERATURE

'Little Women': Book Vs. Movie https://www.npr.org/2019/12/21/790422188/little-women-book-vs-movie

Elizabeth Spencer, ‘Light In the Piazza’ author, dies at 98 https://apnews.com/013be99c46bd6558c30202c313cf8925

TS Eliot’s hidden love letters reveal intense, heartbreaking affair https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jan/02/ts-eliot-hidden-love-letters-reveal-intense-heartbreaking-affair-emily-hale

1924 Copyrighted Works To Become Part Of The Public Domain https://www.npr.org/2019/12/30/792302139/1924-copyrighted-works-to-become-part-of-the-public-domain

The Decade in Fiction https://thewalrus.ca/the-decade-in-fiction/

The Asian-American Literature Canon Breakers https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/01/06/the-asian-american-canon-breakers

Barbara Testa Dies at 91; Her Discovery Rocked the Literary World https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/30/books/barbara-testa-dead.html

***POETRY

Poet Louis Jenkins found beauty in the Midwestern mundane https://www.mprnews.org/story/2019/12/21/poet-louis-jenkins-found-beauty-in-the-midwestern-mundane

Inspired by Emily Dickinson, Alice Tippit’s paintings play out as visual poetry  https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2020-01-03/emily-dickinson-alice-tippit-review

***PRIVACY & SECURITY 

They claim this new security system is uncrackable and will revolutionize privacy https://news.st-andrews.ac.uk/archive/new-security-system-to-revolutionise-privacy/

The hottest new smartphone chat app is secretly spying on you https://bgr.com/2019/12/23/totok-app-spying-on-android-and-iphone-users-nyt-report-says/

Schools are using facial recognition to try to stop shootings. Here’s why they should think twice. https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/12/20/21028124/schools-facial-recognition-mass-shootings

Firms don’t agree as to what California’s new data privacy law requires https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/story/2019-12-26/california-internet-data-privacy-law

Ring and Amazon slammed with a federal lawsuit over failed camera securityhttps://www.digitaltrends.com/home/ring-amazon-federal-lawsuit-hacks/

***PRODUCING MEDIA 

YouTube burnout is real. Here's how creators are coping https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/18/tech/youtube-creator-burnout/index.html

We are

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit. -Will Durant (summing up a passage from Aristotle)

Inbuilt gullibility

Fake news may be exacerbating people’s inbuilt gullibility. A study published last year in Science, a journal, concluded that “falsehood diffused significantly farther, faster, deeper and more broadly than the truth” and that this effect was especially strong for fake political news. Fake news provides voters with a smorgasbord of facts and lies from which to pick and choose.

ln 2004 Drew Westen of Emory University in Atlanta put partisan Republicans and Democrats into a magnetic-resonance-imaging scanner and found that lying or hypocrisy by the other side lit up areas of the brain associated with rewards; lies by their own side lit up areas associated with dislike and negative emotions. At no point did the parts of the brain associated with reason show any response at all. If voters’ judgments are rooted in emotion and intuition, facts and evidence are likely to be secondary.

The Economist 

We do not believe in ourselves until

We do not believe in ourselves until someone reveals that deep inside us is valuable, worth listening to, worthy of our trust, sacred to our touch. Once we believe in ourselves we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight or any experience that reveals the human spirit.  –ee cummings

Vulnerability

Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity and change.  -Brene Brown

Fleeting Fame

The record, whether carved in stone or bits of data, is arbitrary in the extreme. To endow with fame and fortune women with big lips or people who hurl themselves over a bar on a bendy pole—while skipping over people who, say, can build houses or make meringues—suggests that fame and game don't rhyme only by accident. Fame comes to those whose accomplishments are recorded, and the “record” is as contingent on human whim as any algorithm.

And the famous are then figments of that record. They're no more real than Beowulf, the warrior longing for fame, who achieved nothing like the enduring fame of Beowulf, the poem. And is Kylie Jenner real? Forbes' billionaire list is renowned for its creative math—and Instagram, like faces touched by fillers, is known for artful distortions. It seems the longing for fame, then, shared by Beowulf and Jenner, doubles as the longing to sacrifice one's real life wholly to the record, to pass out of fact and into fiction.

Virginia Heffernan writing in Wired 

That’s when you find out

There are many moments that are filled with despair and agony, when you have to fire people and cancel things and deal with very difficult situations. That’s when you find out who you are and what your values are. -Steve Jobs

Articles of Interest about Religion - Dec 27

***RELIGION 

The Business of Evangelical Book Publishing Is Business Or is it faith? Or some complex combination of both? https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2019/december-web-only/evangelicals-incorporated-books-business-daniel-vaca.html

Died: Reinhard Bonnke, Record-Setting Evangelist to Africa https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2019/december/reinhard-bonnke-died-evangelist-christ-for-all-nations-afri.html

Christian Book Club Morphs Into Opioid Support Group  https://www.npr.org/2019/12/24/791030109/christian-book-club-morphs-into-opioid-support-group

Small Churches Struggle To Find Organists And Pianists https://www.npr.org/2019/12/24/791030186/small-churches-struggle-to-find-organists-and-pianists

Louisiana Church Filled A Plane With Holy Water And Blessed A Whole Community https://www.npr.org/2019/12/23/790973698/louisiana-church-filled-a-plane-with-holy-water-and-blessed-a-whole-community

10 religious influencers who died in the decade: 2010-2019 https://religionnews.com/2019/12/26/10-religious-influencers-who-died-in-the-decade-2010-2019/

***RELIGION AND POLITICS

Christian Post editor leaves over editorial 'that positions them on Team Trump' https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/475813-christian-post-editor-leaves-over-op-ed-that-positions-them-on

Study Shows White Evangelicals Want Christian Supremacy, Not “Religious Freedom” https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/12/23/white-evangelicals-fear-atheists-democrats-would-strip-away-their-rights-why/

G.O.P. Lawmaker Had Visions of a Christian Alternative Government  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/23/us/matt-shea-washington-extremism.html

Backlash to Pete Buttigieg’s Christmas tweet and the religious divide it exposes https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/12/26/backlash-pete-buttigiegs-christmas-tweet-religious-divide-it-exposes/

One surprisingly simple reason evangelicals love Trumphttps://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/12/27/21038031/white-evangelicals-trump-immigration-election-2020

How divided are evangelicals over Trump? http://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/how-divided-are-evangelicals-over-trump-75737157711

***CHRISTIANITY TODAY MAGAZINE 

Christianity Today says Trump should be removed https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2019/december-web-only/trump-should-be-removed-from-office.html  

Christianity Today receives boost in new subscriptions after calling for Trump's removal, editor in chief says https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/22/christianity-today-receives-boost-in-subscriptions-after-call-for-trump-removal.html

Christianity Today again slams Trump, raises issue of Unconditional Loyalty https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-religion/christianity-today-again-slams-trump-raises-issue-of-unconditional-loyalty-idUSKBN1YS06F

The War Between Christian Papers Over Trump Is Escalating https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/m7qaev/the-war-between-christian-papers-over-trump-is-escalating

***RELIGION & THE LAW 

Supreme Court to Rule on Exception to Work Bias Laws for Religious Schools  https://www.nytimes.com/section/todayspaper

Lawsuit: Muslim employee fired after asking off for a religious holiday https://www.newsobserver.com/news/state/north-carolina/article238590968.html

***DENOMINATIONS

EFCA defends removing 'premillennial' from statement of faith: not an 'essential' doctrine https://www.christianpost.com/news/efca-defends-removing-premillennial-from-statement-of-faith-not-an-essential-doctrine.html

Texas megachurch votes to leave UMC over homosexuality debate https://www.christianpost.com/news/texas-megachurch-votes-to-leave-umc-over-homosexuality-debate.html

The SBC Has a Sex-Abuse Problem (sub. requ’ed)  https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-sbc-has-a-sex-abuse-problem-11577400072

Interfaith leader reaches settlement in United Methodist Church sexual harassment case https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/the-rev-bud-heckman-interfaith-leader-reaches-settlement-in-united-methodist-church-sexual-harassment-case/

***CATHOLIC

Many Catholics in Latin America support allowing priests to marry  https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/12/20/many-catholics-in-latin-america-including-a-majority-in-brazil-support-allowing-priests-to-marry/

Disgraced Former Cardinal Made Payments To Vatican Officials During Sex Abuse Case https://www.npr.org/2019/12/27/791918087/disgraced-former-cardinal-made-payments-to-vatican-officials-during-sex-abuse-ca

Don’t Passionately Settle

On golf courses, one may find some aging men and women whose chief remaining goal in life is to knock a few more strokes off their game. This dedicated effort to improve their skill serves to give them a sense of progress in life and there by assists them in ignoring the reality that they have actually stopped progressing, having given up the effort to improve themselves as human beings. If they loved themselves more they would not allow themselves to a passionately settle for such a shallow goal and narrow future. 

M Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled

The Other Fellow

When the other fellow is set in his ways, he’s obstinate. When you are, it’s just firmness. 

When the other fellow doesn’t like your friends, he’s prejudiced and narrow minded. 

When you don’t like his friends, you are simply showing you’re a good judge of human nature. 

When the other fellow tries to treat someone especially well, he’s buttering them up. When you do the same game, you’re using tact.

When the other fellow picks out flows in things, he’s cranky. When you do, you are discriminating and just be careful.

When the other fellow says what he things, he’s spiteful. When you do, you’re just plain spoken.  

Articles of Interest about Higher Ed - Dec 24

***HIGHER ED

Fewer Students Mean Big Trouble For Higher Education https://www.npr.org/2019/12/16/787909495/fewer-students-are-going-to-college-heres-why-that-matters   

The colleges and universities with the most online students http://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/article/2019/12/17/colleges-and-universities-most-online-students-2018

Teenagers don’t use email — colleges do. That’s a problem during college admissions seasonhttps://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-teenagers-emails-college-applications-20191219-ya4pwnt7lfdktdmac4r3fq7p7q-story.html

Change to Chinese university's charter dropping 'freedom of thought' stirs debatehttps://news.yahoo.com/change-ch

Colleges are turning students’ phones into surveillance machines, tracking the locations of hundreds of thousands https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/12/24/colleges-are-turning-students-phones-into-surveillance-machines-tracking-locations-hundreds-thousands/

***THE COST OF COLLEGE

The states where college costs are rising the most https://money.yahoo.com/college-costs-state-185220332.html  

Fancy Dorms Aren’t The Main Reason Tuition Is Skyrocketing https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/fancy-dorms-arent-the-main-reason-tuition-is-skyrocketing

***TEACHING
How classroom technology is holding students back https://www.technologyreview.com/s/614893/classroom-technology-holding-students-back-edtech-kids-education/

Three tips that made me a better teacher https://www.sciencemag.org/careers/2019/12/three-tips-made-me-better-teacher

What’s on Your Bib? Annotated Bibliographies, Changing by Degrees https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/effective-teaching-strategies/annotated-bibliographies-changing-by-degrees/

***CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS

A conservative Catholic college in Wyoming educates students in great books, horsemanship and other outdoors skills and bans cellphones on campus https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/12/16/conservative-wyoming-catholic-college-students-read-great-books-and-ride-horses

A new Jesuit Model for Community Colleges https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/12/18/new-jesuit-model-community-colleges   

U.S. Supreme Court takes up bid by Catholic schools to avoid worker lawsuits https://kfgo.com/news/articles/2019/dec/18/us-supreme-court-takes-up-bid-by-catholic-schools-to-avoid-worker-lawsuits/967651/

***CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS & FINANCE 

Declining Enrollment prompts staff budget cuts at Christian University http://www.startribune.com/declining-enrollment-prompts-staff-budget-cuts-at-bethel-university/566126311/

Are Christian Colleges Worth the Debt Burden? (opinion) https://www.jamesgmartin.center/2019/12/are-christian-colleges-worth-the-debt-burden/

Financial problems land San Diego Christian College on probation https://inewsource.org/2019/12/19/san-diego-christian-college-probation/

***LIBERTY UNIVERSITY 

Ready, Set, Trump: Big-Money Faith, Football, and Forgiveness at Jerry Falwell Jr.’s Liberty University https://www.theringer.com/2019/12/20/21029292/ready-set-trump-big-money-faith-football-and-forgiveness-at-jerry-falwell-jr-s-liberty-university

***RESEARCH  

Why are Articles in Arts and Humanities Are Being Retracted? https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12109-019-09699-9

Robots, hominins and superconductors: 10 remarkable papers from 2019 https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-03834-4

There’s No Winter Break From ‘Publish or Perish’  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/18/science/scientists-holiday-work.html

Women are less likely than men to frame their own work in positive terms https://www.statnews.com/2019/12/16/spin-doctors-skew-male-female-researchers-are-less-likely-than-men-to-frame-their-work-with-positive-words/

Myth: peer review began with the advent of the first scientific journals in the 17th century https://utpjournals.press/doi/full/10.3138/jsp.51.1.04

Chinese scholars ‘show mixed responses’ to ‘cash for articles’ https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/chinese-scholars-show-mixed-responses-cash-articles

Raising research quality will require collective action https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-03750-7

***RESEARCH AUTHORSHIP

Academe must properly credit the work in co-authored publications (opinion) https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2019/12/12/academe-must-properly-credit-work-co-authored-publications-opinion

Multi-authorship and research analytics https://clarivate.com/webofsciencegroup/campaigns/global-research-report-multi-authorship-and-research-analysis/

***RESEARCH HACKING 

We're All 'P-Hacking' Now https://www.wired.com/story/were-all-p-hacking-now/

Is N-Hacking Ever OK? A simulation-based study https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2019.12.12.868489v1

***RESEARCH & PSYCHOLOGY 

Psychology accused of ‘collective self-deception’ over results https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/psychology-accused-collective-self-deception-over-results

What’s next for psychology’s embattled field of social priming https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-03755-2

***PLAGIARISM  

Here's What Happens When You Report Plagiarism To A Journal Editor http://www.poweredbyosteons.org/2019/12/heres-what-happens-when-you-report.html

Why is brazenly putting one's name on a text that someone else wrote repugnant? Should it be?  https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2019/12/06/essay-plagiarism

***STUDENT LIFE 

Study: kids who have helicopter parents experience burnout in school  https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/22/study-kids-who-have-helicopter-parents-experience-burnout-in-school.html 

Anti-Semitism or Free Speech? College Students Cheer and Fear Trump Order https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/15/us/trump-anti-semitism-order-college-students.html

Advice for College Students Studying Abroad, and Their Parents https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/16/well/family/advice-for-college-students-studying-abroad-and-their-parents.html 

"OK BOOMER" explained on Japanese TV https://www.youtube.com/watch

Gladwell Rebuts Advice: Don't Go to "the Best College You Can," Go Where You Can Have "Deeply Interesting Conversations" http://www.openculture.com/2019/12/malcolm-gladwell-rebuts-the-terrible-advice-given-to-students.html

Grades vs. SAT scores: Which is a better predictor of college success? https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-12-22/grades-vs-sat-scores-which-is-a-better-predictor-of-college-success

Why colleges should stop forcing students to leave campus during breaks https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/12/23/no-home-holidays-why-colleges-should-stop-forcing-students-leave-campus-during-breaks/

My Semester with Snowflakes https://medium.com/@james.hatch/my-semester-with-the-snowflakes-888285f0e662

***SEXUAL HARASSMENT & ASSAULT

Students demand more transparency about University of Texas at Austin practices and policies on sexual misconduct by professors https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2019/12/16/protesters-demand-removal-ut-austin-professors

God’s Christmas tree

God’s Christmas tree has no colored lights. No ornaments. No trinkets. 

It is not even pretty to look at.  But God has his Christmas tree. It is the cross of Christ.

what's important about Christmas

The most important part of Christmas is the first six letters.

For the Birds

The Christmas story absolutely escaped Tom. The whole “God born in a manger” thing was beyond him. Or maybe it was just too simple for him to grasp. At least, until that Christmas Eve when the snow began to fall. He had just settled into his fireside chair and begun to read when he heard thumping sounds on the window and at first he thought someone was throwing snowballs. He went to the door. Looking into the yard, he found a small flock of birds. Huddled there in the snow. They had been caught in the storm and had desperately tried to find shelter by flying through his large living room window.  He knew he couldn’t let those little creatures freeze. The barn! Where the children keep the pony. That would provide shelter if he could get the birds in there. 

He opened the barn doors and turned on a light. The birds didn’t move. Maybe some food would entice them. He sprinkled bread crumbs next to the stable door. Nothing. He tried catching them and shooing them.  The birds went everywhere, except into the barn. They were afraid of him. I want them to trust me he thought. How can I convince them I want to help?  Buy any move he made tended to frighten them. They would not follow or be lead or shooed. 

“If only I could be a bird myself he thought. If I could be a bird and mingle with them and speak their language and show them the way to the barn, then they could see and understand.”

It was at that moment the church bells began to ring. Listening to the good news, Tom understood and sank to his knees in the snow. 

some problems

Some problems are so complex that you have to be highly intelligent and well informed just to be undecided about them. 

Articles of Interest about Literature, Journalism, Writing & Languages – Dec 20

***WRITING & READING

Indie booksellers persevere despite Amazon, rising costs  https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/indie-booksellers-persevere-amazon-rising-costs-67656831

The 78 Best Book Covers of 2019 https://lithub.com/the-78-best-book-covers-of-2019

***GRAMMAR

The rightness of the singular ‘they’ (opinion)  https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2019-12-15/they-singular-grammar-transgender-history

The impeachment debate has sparked a linguistic war over the word “irregardless” https://qz.com/1771950/impeachment-debates-reignite-the-linguistic-fight-over-irregardless/

***JOURNALISM

Newsrooms begin tinkering with 5G to get ahead of the curve https://www.axios.com/5g-newsroom-experiments-new-york-times-e22a6aad-cdff-4d20-9247-cc3465f52ae9.html 

A tweet gave a journalist a seizure: His case brings new meaning to the idea of ‘online assault’ https://nationalpost.com/news/world/a-tweet-gave-a-journalist-a-seizure-his-case-brings-new-meaning-to-the-idea-of-online-assault

***JOURNALISM & THE LAW 

State legislators are subject to public-records law, Washington state Supreme Court rules https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/

Nevada's Top Court Says The State's Journalist Shield Law Also Applies To Bloggers https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20191211/10494243555/nevadas-top-court-says-states-journalist-shield-law-also-applies-to-bloggers.shtml

***JOURNALISM: BEST OF 

Best news bloopers 2019  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3i7aObzNGuI

The best visual and data-driven stories of 2019 https://pudding.cool/process/pudding-cup-2019/

2019’s Best Investigative Stories from China https://gijn.org/2019/12/16/editors-pick-2019s-best-investigative-stories-from-china/

***JOURNALISM IN THE MOVIES

Hollywood’s 10 Worst Depictions of Female Music Journalists https://variety.com/feature/hollywood-10-worst-female-music-journalists-crazy-heart-richard-jewell-1203435207  

The Fictional Journalism of ‘Richard Jewell’ and ‘Bombshell’ https://www.theringer.com/movies/2019/12/17/21025944/richard-jewell-bombshell-fox-news-megyn-kelly-kathy-scruggs

***THE BUSINESS OF JOURNALISM 

As print and digital newsrooms struggle, local broadcast stations are making money ‘hand over fist’ https://www.poynter.org/business-work/2019/the-rich-get-richer-local-broadcast-readies-for-a-3-2-billion-political-ad-bonanza-in-2020/

***STUDENT MEDIA

College journalists in New Jersey describe years of “intimidation, harassment, threats” by administrators https://splc.org/2019/12/college-journalists-in-new-jersey-describe-years-of-intimidation-harassment-threats-by-administrators/

AB 5 hurts student journalists https://thedailyaztec.com/97798/opinion/ab-5-hurts-student-journalists/

***FAKE NEWS

How We See Disinformation https://disinfopoll.cjr.org/

30 Viral Fakes That Defined the 2010s https://gizmodo.com/30-viral-fakes-that-defined-the-2010s-1838215357

I created my own deepfake—it took two weeks and cost $552 https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/12/how-i-created-a-deepfake-of-mark-zuckerberg-and-star-treks-data/    

Facebook funding Reuters deepfakes course for newsrooms  https://www.axios.com/exclusive-facebook-funding-reuters-deepfakes-course-for-newsrooms-eccb3daa-4627-4a59-be64-44d9554f85da.html

Fighting misinformation requires journalism, not secret algorithms https://www.niemanlab.org/2019/12/fighting-misinformation-requires-journalism-not-secret-algorithms/

***LANGUAGE

The Language You Speak Influences What You Look At https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/language-and-mind/201912/the-language-you-speak-influences-what-you-look

How to build a language  http://news.mit.edu/2019/constructed-languages-linguistics-1218

Why North Carolina Is the Most Linguistically Diverse State https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/north-carolina-linguistics

***LITERATURE 

Peter Pan’s dark side emerges with release of original manuscript https://amp.theguardian.com/books/2019/dec/15/peter-pans-dark-side-emerges-with-release-of-original-manuscript

Extremely Shortened Versions of Classic Books For Lazy People  https://www.sadanduseless.com/abridged-classics-funny/#more-81157

Finding the Other: The radical vision of Toni Morrison https://www.thenation.com/article/toni-morrison-essays-fiction-humanism-book-review/

***POETRY

Marriage, Betrayal, and the Letters Behind “The Dolphin” https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/12/16/marriage-betrayal-and-the-letters-behind-the-dolphin

A Book Of Poetry For Everyone https://www.npr.org/2019/12/17/789036879/a-book-of-poetry-for-everyone

What is Poetry? Part 2  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/19/magazine/poem-what-is-poetry-part-2.html

***PRIVACY & SECURITY 
Every victim’s nightmare: Ransomware attackers are now doxing people who don’t pay up
https://www.fastcompany.com/90444707/every-victims-nightmare-ransomware-attackers-are-now-doxing-people-who-dont-pay-up

***SOCIAL MEDIA 

The biggest corporate brands in all of social media https://media.thinknum.com/articles/the-biggest-corporate-brands-in-all-of-social-media/

Taylor Swift is still the most influential person on Twitter in 2019 https://www.cnet.com/news/taylor-swift-is-still-the-most-influential-person-on-twitter-in-2019/

The Time Test

If a class of students are allowed an hour to complete an essay test and one student completes her assignment before the time is up, she isn’t penalized, is she? The assignment was to write an essay, not merely to use the time. 

But what if using the time was the assignment? If a person is told to use an entire day profitably, but he becomes bored and diverted by mid-morning, wasting the balance of the day, then his speed is worthless.

The same is true when life is the task. To be finished with life before life has finished with us is to have failed to complete the assignment. 

smart

Smart is not something that you just are, smart is something that you can get. -Jeff Howard 

Articlesof Interest about Religion - Dec 18

***RELIGION 

Christianity Today’s 2020 Book Awards  https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2020/january-february/christianity-today-2020-book-awards.html

Army warns private company to stop putting Bible verses on replica dog tags https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/473492-army-warns-private-company-to-stop-putting-bible-verses-on 

Televangelist opens his Bible-themed attraction in San Diego — from wailing wall and catacombs to luxury lodging https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/business/tourism/story/2019-12-09/televangelist-opens-his-bible-themed-retreat-from-wailing-wall-and-catacombs-to-luxury-lodging

10 facts about atheists https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/12/06/10-facts-about-atheists/

A Woman Wore A "Hail Satan" T-Shirt On A Plane. American Airlines Forced Her To Change Or Get Off The Plane. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/juliareinstein/american-airlines-hail-satan-tshirt-satanic-temple-airplane

Why we studied American sermons and how we did it https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/12/16/why-we-studied-american-sermons-and-how-we-did-it/

How living arrangements vary by religious affiliation around the world https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/12/13/key-findings-how-living-arrangements-vary-by-religious-affiliation-around-the-world/

Boz Tchividjian Steps down from Ministry, Resigns from Liberty University to Represent Sex Abuse Victims in Court https://www.christianheadlines.com/contributors/lori-arnold/boz-tchividjian-steps-down-from-ministry-resigns-from-liberty-to-represent-sex-abuse-victims-in-court.html

Christian influencers raising $100K to ‘resurrect’ daughter draw suspicion https://www.dailydot.com/irl/christian-influencer-100k-resurrect-daughter/

***RELIGION & OFFENSIVE MATERIAL

‘Deeply offensive’ Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus Christmas cards spark anger among Christian community https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/christmas/christmas-cards-offensive-virgin-mary-joseph-baby-jesus-christian-criticism-a9238531.html

Netflix under fire for depicting Jesus as gay in new Christmas movie https://nypost.com/2019/12/16/netflix-under-fire-for-depicting-jesus-as-gay-in-new-christmas-movie

***RELIGION & THE YOUNG 

Millennials Are Leaving Religion And Not Coming Back https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/millennials-are-leaving-religion-and-not-coming-back/

Teens in the U.S. South more likely than others to express religion in school https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/12/10/teens-in-the-south-more-likely-than-other-u-s-teens-to-experience-religion-in-public-school/      

***RELIGION AND POLITICS 

GOP Rep. pitches LGBTQ rights bill with religious exemptions https://apnews.com/99ee40ec55b800e8cf229a681d901838

 Church nativity depicts Jesus, Mary and Joseph as family separated at border https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/church-nativity-depicts-jesus-mary-joseph-family-separated-border-n1097891

Will young white evangelicals turn their backs on Trump? https://religionnews.com/2019/12/16/will-young-white-evangelicals-turn-their-backs-on-trump/

San Diego City Council allows churches to build housing in parking lots  https://www.10news.com/news/local-news/city-council-allows-churches-to-build-housing-in-parking-lots

Waco judge sues state agency after receiving public warning for refusing to officiate same-sex marriages https://www.texastribune.org/2019/12/17/waco-judge-sues-after-public-warning-same-sex-marriages/

***RELIGION & THE LAW 

Balancing LGBTQ Rights And Religious Liberty  https://www.npr.org/2019/12/08/785804812/balancing-lgbtq-rights-and-religious-liberty

New Controversial Law In India Uses Religion As A Criteria For Citizenship https://www.npr.org/2019/12/11/787192549/new-controversial-law-in-india-uses-religion-as-a-criteria-for-citizenship

Trump's Executive Order On Anti-Semitism Sparks Debate https://www.npr.org/2019/12/11/787192556/trumps-executive-order-on-anti-semitism-sparks-debate

***RELIGION & CRIME

Maine man charged with turning church playroom into meth lab https://nypost.com/2019/12/08/maine-man-charged-with-turning-church-playroom-into-meth-lab/amp/

***RELIGION & FINANCE  

Whistleblower claims that LDS Church stockpiled $100 billion in charitable donations, dodged taxes https://www.sltrib.com/news/2019/12/17/whistleblower-claims-that/  

6 charts that illustrate the surprising financial strength of American houses of worship https://theconversation.com/6-charts-that-illustrate-the-surprising-financial-strength-of-american-houses-of-worship-127689

***CATHOLIC

Pastor Of North Carolina Catholic Megachurch On Leave Amid Abuse Allegation https://www.huffpost.com/entry/pastor-who-decried-sexually-abusive-clerics-accused-of-sexually-abusing-a-minor_n_5df104bbe4b0b75fb535f037

***MEGACHURCHES

South Carolina Megachurch staffer resigns after 'hostile' meeting on church's possible eviction 

https://www.wyff4.com/article/relentess-church-staff-resigns-after-meeting-about-churches-future/30187425#

Megachurch founder Joel Osteen blocks Sandy Hook mom on Twitter after she calls him a "charlatan." https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-joel-osteen-blocks-sandy-hook-mom-on-twitter-20191209-cotebsljqzh4vnwpxjv3r5fgo4-story.html

Virginia Megachurch pastor steps away from pulpit because he feels far from God, tired in soul https://www.christianpost.com/news/megachurch-pastor-steps-away-from-pulpit-because-he-feels-far-from-god-tired-in-soul.html

***RELIGION & LGBTQ ISSUES

Woman featured in Denver Post story about conversion therapy found dead in Boulder County https://www.denverpost.com/2019/12/10/alana-chen-conversion-therapy/ 

On eve of church’s LGBTQ clampdown, Dallas’ First United Methodist will celebrate all marriages in special service https://www.dallasnews.com/news/commentary/2019/12/18/on-eve-of-churchs-lgbtq-clampdown-dallas-first-united-methodist-will-celebrate-all-marriages-in-special-service/