Articles of interest about the virus, journalism, writing & more – June 19

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***THE VIRUS

A Growing Body Of Research Highlights The Importance Of Wearing Face Masks 

Male baldness may increase severe covid-19 risk

This is how the COVID-19 pandemic hit the US higher education system in its weak spot

Is it safer to fly or drive during the pandemic?

The Gender Divide in Mask-Wearing 

Researchers Discover People Are Not So Good At Detecting Sick People By Their Coughs

***WORKING FROM HOME

5 habits of people who are especially productive working from home 

The Biggest Psychological Experiment in History Is Running Now

***WRITING & READING

Microsoft Office can help you write with inclusive language — here’s how

Why most plagiarism checkers can’t cope with shady academic writings 

Do the soaring sales of anti-racism books signal a true cultural shift?

Perceptions of plagiarism by biomedical researchers  

***JOURNALISM

The First Amendment protects reporters, too

You Shouldn't Need A Press Badge To Be Safe From Police Violence At Protests 

The Police Have Been Spying on Black Reporters and Activists for Years

***THE BUSINESS OF MEDIA 

Sinclair Broadcast Group to Launch Headline News Service, Announces 25 New Positions to be Filled

Fox News Argues Viewers Don't Assume Tucker Carlson Reports Facts 

Six McClatchy newspapers and its DC bureau will vacate their offices, leaving journalists working remotely until at least 2021

***ONE AMERICA NEWS NETWORK 

When Fox News disappoints, Trump has a backup: the conspiracy-peddling One America News Network 

One America News [OANN], The Network That Spreads Conspiracies to the West Wing   

Oklahoma State coach's conservative news network T-shirt could cost him a star player

***STUDENT MEDIA

A High School Journalist Dug Into Suspensions of Black Students. What She Found Won an Award

The Millennial Mental-Health Crisis

 ***FAKES & FRAUDS 

Meet the Propagandists and Conspiracy Theorists Behind the One America News Network

Lateral thinking is classic pseudoscience, derivative and untested

As protests spread, misinformation in Facebook Groups tears small towns apart

Help children distinguish between what’s real and what’s fake

Fake news is fooling more conservatives than liberals. Why?

***SOCIAL MEDIA

How TikTok's 'For You' Algorithm Works

Mark Zuckerberg says Facebook will allow users to turn off political ads

Facebook and Twitter might have the bells and whistles but Google Docs has became the social media of the resistance  

Twitter is testing warnings for users who try to share links to articles they haven't read 

Twitter adds ability to record audio in tweets

***LANGUAGE

New study gives insight on effectiveness of language learning apps 

Racism definition: Merriam-Webster to make update after request 

***LITERATURE 

Ernest Hemingway’s Grandson on an Unpublished Story from the Author’s Archive

Book Authors Are Getting Real About How Much They Are Paid

Literary Agents See An Uptick In Writers Submitting Pandemic Stories

Maxine Hong Kingston’s Genre-Defying Life and Work  

10 of the best non-fiction science books to read right now

***POETRY 

Poetry Foundation Leaders Resign After Criticism Of Their Response To Protests 

***PRIVACY & SECURITY 

What It’s Like to Get Doxed for Taking a Bike Ride 

Zoom responds to privacy backlash by giving all its users end-to-end encryption

Availability Bias

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Have you ever said something like, “I know that [insert a generic statement here] because [insert one single example].” For example, someone might say, “You can’t get fat from drinking beer, because Bob drinks a lot of it, and he’s thin.” If you have, then you’ve suffered from availability bias. You are trying to make sense of the world with limited data.

People naturally tend to base decisions on information that is already available to us or things we hear about often without looking at alternatives that might be useful. As a result, we limit ourselves to a very specific subset of information.

This happens often in the data science world. Data scientists tend to get and work on data that’s easier to obtain rather than looking for data that is harder to gather but might be more useful. We make do with models that we understand and that are available to us in a neat package rather than something more suitable for the problem at hand but much more difficult to come by.

A way to overcome availability bias in data science is to broaden our horizons. Commit to lifelong learning. Read. A lot. About everything. Then read some more. Meet new people. Discuss your work with other data scientists at work or in online forums. Be more open to suggestions about changes that you may have to take in your approach. By opening yourself up to new information and ideas, you can make sure that you’re less likely to work with incomplete information.

Rahul Agarwal writing in Built in

 

The best advice I ever got

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The advice that sticks out I got from John Door, who in 2001 said, “My advice to you is to have a coach.” 

My argument was, How could a coach advise me if I’m the best person in the world at this?  But that’s not what a coach does. The coach doesn’t have to play the sport as well as you do. They have to watch you and get you to do your best. 

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt quoted in Fortune Magazine

 

Articles of interest about religion - June 12

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***THE VIRUS 

Just How Historic Is the Latest Covid-19 Science Meltdown? 

Widespread mask-wearing could prevent COVID-19 second waves: study

***THE VIRUS & RELIGION 

The virus is accelerating dechurching in America 

***RELIGION & THE PROTESTS

Mitt Romney joins thousands of evangelicals marching against racial injustice in DC 

Tony Evans, Joel Osteen, Kari Jobe join Blackout Tuesday in solidarity against injustice 

***RELIGION & RACE 

Evangelical Christians Grapple With Racism As Sin   

DC Pastor On The Role Of Diversity In Places Of Worship

Do White Evangelicals Love Police More Than Their Neighbors? 

Eric Metaxas Brings Back Katie “WhiteLivesMatter” Hopkins 

***RELIGIOUS BELIEF 

How Christian theology shapes our response to abuse

58 Percent of Americans Believe Moral Truth 'Is Up to Each Individual,' New Poll Finds

***RELIGION AND POLITICS

Texas mayor says women can't pray at city council meetings

Trump’s Approval Slips Where He Can’t Afford to Lose It: Among Evangelicals ($)

***RELIGION & THE LAW 

Baptist group representing 1,000 churches sues Ill. over abortion coverage law

Parents settle lawsuit over disabled son's forced baptism

***DENOMINATIONS 

Petition seeks firing of Southern Baptist seminary president Mohler over protest remarks 

Southern Baptists see historic drop in membership

***MEGACHURCHES

Co-founder files defamation suit against Willow Creek

The 'anti-celebrity pastor': Why Christian leaders praise Willow Creek's choice for senior pastor

***CHRISTIAN CELEBRITIES

Singer Amy Grant has open heart surgery to fix heart condition

Prominent pastor and author Tim Keller has pancreatic cancer

Christian singer announces he no longer believes in God and explains why

What know-it-alls don’t know

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Know-it-alls can be insufferable, and now there’s new evidence that they know less than they’d have you believe. Researchers from Cornell and Tulane universities found that self-proclaimed experts are more prone to “overclaiming”—essentially, pretending to have extensive knowledge of something they’re clueless about. In the study, 100 volunteers were asked to rate their level of knowledge in various subjects, such as biology, literature, and personal finance. When quizzed on 15 different economic terms, the people who fancied themselves financial gurus were far more likely to claim they were familiar with phenomena such as “pre-rated stocks” and “fixed-rate deduction” that were actually complete fictions. Tests on the other topics revealed similar results—even when participants were warned that some terms would be phony. “Our work suggests that the seemingly straightforward task of judging one’s knowledge may not be so simple,” researcher Stav Atir tells Science Daily, “particularly for individuals who believe they have a relatively high level of knowledge to begin with.”

The Week Magazine, August 7, 2015

Try Doing Less 

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When you stop doing the things that make you feel busy but aren’t getting you results (and are draining you of energy), then you end up with more than enough time for what matters and a sense of peace and spaciousness that constant activity has kept outside your reach. We need to identify what not to do. But this determination can’t be random. It must be methodical and evidence-based. For instance, if you’re looking to connect more with your children, you might list a few specific memories or “wins” when you really felt like you were being the best parent you could.

Often the things we think we “must” do are simply because we always have done them or others around us do them and we think we should, too.

Kate Northrup writing in the Harvard Business Review

 

Tuesday Tech Tools: Science News Sites

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Here are some sites that are fairly reliable on science news. Checking them from time-to-time will give you an idea as to what is being talked about among the science-interested public. 

Aeon - https://aeon.co/

BBC Future - https://www.bbc.com/future 

The Conversation - https://theconversation.com/us

Live Science - https://www.livescience.com/

Massive Science - https://massivesci.com/

Multibriefs - https://exclusive.multibriefs.com/

The Naked Scientist - https://www.thenakedscientists.com/

NY Times Health - https://www.nytimes.com/section/health

NY Times Science - https://www.nytimes.com/section/science

The Pudding - https://pudding.cool/

Retraction Watch - https://retractionwatch.com

Reveal News - https://revealnews.org/

Scholarly Kitchen - https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/

Science Central - https://www.scicentral.com/

Science News for Students - http://sciencenewsforstudents.org/

Stat News - https://www.statnews.com/

Study Finds - https://www.studyfinds.org/

Undark - https://undark.org/

The Walrus - https://thewalrus.ca/

Articles of Interest about higher ed - June 8

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***HIGHER ED & THE VIRUS

More universities report coronavirus cases in athletics programs

Are Face Shields Better Than Masks For Coronavirus? (video) 

Australian universities to close campuses and shed thousands of jobs as revenue plummets due to Covid-19 crisis                   

Some Colleges Are Closing Permanently Because of the Coronavirus Pandemic

How the Coronavirus Crisis Makes the Best Case Yet for Free College Tuition

How small colleges are working with local hospitals to coordinate COVID-19 testing and tracing efforts

***THE FALL SEMESTER  

For private colleges, the picture shifts from (terrible) survey results to the actual totals and they aren't all terrible

To Reopen Campus, Colleges Prepare To Take On Contagious Students 

Should Colleges Have Liability Protection?

Sticker shock: Is an elite college worth the price if it's online? Or at all? 

West Virginia to require virus testing before fall classes 

Students might have to stay in 'protective bubble'

USC to resume in-person classes in August with mandatory face coverings, physical distancing

Some College-Bound Students In The U.S. Are Thinking Of Taking A Gap Year

Lawyers Lay Out Legal Issues Colleges Face This Fall 

Harvard Law School Will Be Online-Only In The Fall, Harvard’s Entering MBA Class Is Down Nearly 25%

Texas colleges expect larger online summer classes as students lose jobs, internships

Clemson University on track to increase enrollment this fall despite coronavirus 

The University of Alabama system's plan to use a tracking app to manage the virus on campus 

***COLLEGE FINANCE

Survey Warns of ‘Dramatic Decline’ in College Fundraising 

Enrollments Could Rise While Tuition Revenue Falls, Moody’s Says 

Kent State University ups tuition $225 per semester for incoming Kent campus freshmen

***HIGHER ED

How colleges can help the newly unemployed 

Community College Systems to Review Police Training

Asia's Higher Ed Demographic Cliff

America’s Top Colleges Are Karens

A college where the graduation rate for black students has been zero percent — for years 

University of Kentucky to remove controversial Memorial Hall mural from campus

***TEACHING ONLINE 

WSJ: Students and teachers flunked remote learning

Ed experts believe that distance learning in most school districts is not working & that students are falling behind

***ACADEMIC LIFE  

Miami professor accused of making racist remarks at protesters 

Racism accusations lead to ASU pulling journalism school dean job offer

University to Investigate Lecturer for Reading MLK's Letter from Birmingham Jail 

University of North Carolina Wilmington calls professor's tweets 'vile and inexcusable' following growing backlash online

How Reciprocal Teaching Can Transform Your Remote Faculty Meeting 

Professor resigns after criticizing protesters, and another faces calls for his termination

In the rush to bring students to campus, professors ask: What about us?

Weber State professor resigns after tweeting threats at those involved in police protests

Trying to help faculty members improve during a pandemic

***CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS  

Cal Lutheran is giving any student who registered for an AP test this spring the full credit for the course takers 

Tension, tears as protesters target Liberty University

Christian university to host George Floyd memorial service in Minneapolis Thursday

8th president of Cal Lutheran selected

Trevecca Nazarene University to start Fall 2020 semester early, end before Thanksgiving 

Southwest Baptist University eliminating positions, adopting sustainability plan  

Thomas More University names Dr. Molly Smith its first provost after national search

***RESEARCH 

The Lancet has made one of the biggest retractions in modern history. How could this happen? Peer review 

Evaluating equity in scholarly publishing

Will the pandemic permanently alter scientific publishing?

***STUDENT LIFE 

More Students Are ‘Stacking’ Credentials en Route to a Degree

New COVID-19 scam targets college students

5 things you probably don't know about taking a gap year 

Students Demand Campuses Cut Ties With Police but few have

***CAMPUS POLICE

Police Fired for Injuring Spelman and Morehouse Students 

Troy University suspends police chief over George Floyd comments

***SEXUAL HARASSMENT & ASSAULT 

Employment law issues in the new Title IX rules

Federal Appeals Court Defines 'Fairness' in Title IX Policies

States sue to block DeVos' campus sexual assault overhaul

Why Video Conferencing is Exhausting

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Video chats mean we need to work harder to process non-verbal cues like facial expressions, the tone and pitch of the voice, and body language; paying more attention to these consumes a lot of energy. “Our minds are together when our bodies feel we're not. That dissonance, which causes people to have conflicting feelings, is exhausting. You cannot relax into the conversation naturally,” according to Gianpiero Petriglieri.

Silence is another challenge, he adds. “Silence creates a natural rhythm in a real-life conversation. However, when it happens in a video call, you became anxious about the technology.” It also makes people uncomfortable. Even delays of 1.2 seconds made people perceive the responder as less friendly or focused.

An added factor—we are very aware of being watched. You are on stage, so there comes the social pressure and feeling like you need to perform. Being performative is nerve-wracking and more stressful. It’s also very hard for people not to look at their own face if they can see it on screen, or not to be conscious of how they behave in front of the camera.

Read more from the BBC