Ideas that challenge / comfort / inspire
Stephen Goforth
When our bathroom scale delivers bad news, we hop off and then on again, just to make sure we didn’t misread the display or put too much pressure on one foot. When our scale delivers good news, we smile and head for the shower. By uncritically accepting evidence when it pleases us, and insisting on more when it doesn’t, we subtly tip the scales in our favor.
Psychologist Dan Gilbert in The New York Times
Rather than talking about your self-imposed limitations, talk about your openness to change and adaptability.
If there is a sin against life, it consists perhaps not so much in despairing of life as in hoping for another life and in eluding the implacable grandeur of this life. -Albert Camus (born Nov. 7, 1913)
Philosophy is important because it’s unavoidable if you want to live a coherent life. -Rebecca Goldstein
We don’t need to become emotionless processors of numerical information – just noticing our emotions and taking them into account may often be enough to improve our judgment. Rather than requiring superhuman control of our emotions, we need simply to develop good habits. Ask yourself: how does this information make me feel? Do I feel vindicated or smug? Anxious, angry or afraid? Am I in denial, scrambling to find a reason to dismiss the claim?
Before I repeat any statistical claim, I first try to take note of how it makes me feel. It’s not a foolproof method against tricking myself, but it’s a habit that does little harm, and is sometimes a great deal of help. Our emotions are powerful. We can’t make them vanish, and nor should we want to. But we can, and should, try to notice when they are clouding our judgment.
Tim Harford, How to Make the World Add Up
***RELIGION & THE VIRUS
Charlotte church ordered to close, linked to 3 deaths & more than 120 coronavirus case
COVID-19 cases tied to Charlotte church reported in 2nd county, total exceeds 100
California Pastor Wants To Take Case Against COVID-19 Restrictions To Supreme Court
A Christian School Sued Over Michigan’s Mask Mandate—Officials Just Shut It Down
***RELIGION
A Tale of Two Evangelicalisms - Sweden and the US (opinion)
Bible from A-Z: Software rewrites entire King James version alphabetically
Most Americans see Bible, Quran and Book of Mormon as ‘expressions of the same truths’
***RELIGION AND POLITICS
Biden did worse than Hillary Clinton with evangelicals in 2020, poll shows
Election 2020: 3 Things We Learned About Faith And Voting
'Jesus Matters' activist who defaced BLM murals, stabbed outside White House
Exit polls show strong white evangelical support for Trump
Two Religion Reporters Cover Where Faith and Politics Meet ($)
***RELIGION IN COURT
UK venues sued after Franklin Graham cancelled after LGBT protests
***CATHOLIC
Exorcism: Increasingly frequent, including after US protests
Trial Of A Priest Charged With Sexually Abusing An Altar Boy To Resume In Vatican
***MEGACHURCHES
Texas Megachurch pastor accused of abusing children
Coronavirus outbreak strikes John MacArthur‘s megachurch that defied public health orders
The person who’s listening is usually the one worth listening to.
If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. – Will Rodgers (born Nov. 4, 1879)
Once something is added to your collection of beliefs, you protect it from harm. You do it instinctively and unconsciously when confronted with attitude-inconsistent information. Just as confirmation bias shields you when you actively seek information, the backfire effect defends you when the information seeks you, when it blindsides you. Coming or going, you stick to your beliefs instead of questioning them. When someone tries to correct you, tries to dilute your misconceptions, it backfires and strengthens them instead. Over time, the backfire effect helps make you less skeptical of those things which allow you to continue seeing your beliefs and attitudes as true and proper.
David McRaney
***HIGHER ED & THE VIRUS
What counts as success when it comes to containing COVID
Colleges with high case counts show no signs of shutting down
Colleges Turn To Wastewater Testing In An Effort To Flush Out The Coronavirus
Why More Colleges Are Testing Off-Campus Students for Covid-19
Despite Strains, Small Colleges Find Advantages In Dealing With COVID-19 On Campus
***LAYOFFS & FURLOUGHS
$1.1M faculty furlough plan takes shape at Boise State
More than 100 professors at Pa. state universities may be out of a job come spring
University of Akron rejects ‘interference’ by national union following faculty layoffs
Cal U. announces cost-cutting plan without faculty layoffs
Indiana University of Pennsylvania notifies 81 faculty members of pending job losses
Park Point University staff laid off due to the $9 million deficit
The University of Delaware lays off 120+ in round of cuts
A Student-led Rally At NYs New School after 122 Staff Layoffs
LSU athletics lays off employees, reduces pay, cancels coaches' bonuses as revenue falls
***COLLEGE FINANCES
American University to lose up to $116 million to coronavirus expenses
Colleges Slash Budgets in the Pandemic, With ‘Nothing Off-Limits’ ($)
Moody’s Forecasts Widespread Drop in Tuition Revenue ($)
***HIGHER ED
Clemson University has found 604 unmarked graves on its South Carolina campus. But who were they?
Why small, private universities continue to champion the residential experience
***HIGHER ED & POLITICS
GW tells students to prepare for unrest following election
How a Republican plan to split a Black college campus backfired
Political Divide Over Colleges' Fall Reopenings
***HUMANITIES
Scientism, the coronavirus, and the death of the humanities
The Humanities in the Time of Covid-19 (podcast)
Degree Programs Under the gun for a Decade may not survive a Pandemic ($)
***ONLINE CLASSES
‘Zoom U’: A variable experiment
Zoom end-to-end encryption preview arrives: How to turn it on
Zoom rival clocks a staggering 600 million users in September
It’s easy to mistake engagement for learning. Here’s how I learned the difference
***ONLINE CHEATING
With classes online, a wave of cheating is ravaging Penn’s academics
Cheat Codes: Students Search For Shortcuts as Virtual Schooling Expands
***ACADEMIC LIFE
Jewish Faculty Refute Illinois Anti-Semitism Complaint
Cal State East Bay professor accused of publishing racist teachings linked to eugenics
Academic mobbing is even more damaging than you think ($)
***ADMINISTRATORS
Black Administrators are rare at the top ranks (and it’s not just a pipeline problem
Northwestern president faces calls for resignation as students protest to abolish campus police
***CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS
Wheaton College among top 15 schools by Alumni ratings
First Point Loma Nazarene Student to Contract COVID-19 Shares Experience
Surf Studies at PLNU (opinion)
***LIBERTY UNIVERSITY
How Falwell Kept His Grip on Liberty Amid Sexual ‘Games,’ Self-Dealing
Jerry Falwell Jr. sues Liberty University for defamation
***RESEARCH
How hot are hot papers? The issue of prolificacy and self-citation stacking
Paleontologists See Stars as Software Bleeps Scientific Terms ($)
A bibliometric analysis of academic misconduct research in higher education
Disseminating Scientific Results in the Age of Rapid Communication
Plagiarism in dentistry - a systematic review
I do wish that journal editors would not take six years to perform an investigation and to retract
Are research Publishers Learning from Their Mistakes?
Research is in a crisis of credibility
***COVID RESEARCH
Widely cited COVID-19-masks paper under scrutiny for inaccurate stat
Scientific fraud vs. financial fraud: is there a scientific equivalent of a “market crime”?
The damage of predatory marketing journals
***RETRACTIONS
Which research journals cite the most retracted work?
An increase in retractions of research publications is an issue for Medical Physics
Where Are The Self-Correcting Mechanisms In Science?
***STUDENT LIFE
What Does a College Student Look Like? Stock Images From the Quad Are Getting an Update ($)
Virtual Education Is Impacting College Students' Access To Voting
As Freshmen, They Voted for Trump. Has College Changed Their Minds?
Students, staff at Ohio U discuss reality of academic burnout
***RANSOMWARE
FBI warns ransomware assault threatens US health care system
University Dodges A Bullet As Fake Covid-19 Survey Leads To Ransomware Attack
***CRIME ON CAMPUS
***RACIAL ISSUES ON CAMPUS
Texas Band does not not participate, in 'Eyes of Texas' after game in protest—players stay and stand
Will conversation turn to action when it comes to issues of racial equity in college admission?
Virginia Military Institute Leader Resigns After Allegations Of Racism On Campus
A pessimist sees only the dark side of the clouds, and mopes; a philosopher sees both sides, and shrugs; an optimist doesn't see the clouds at all - he's walking on them. -Leonard Louis Levinson
Bitterness leads to a helpless, hopeless cycle around our distasteful feelings. Like the child first learning to ride a bike, we keep moving without knowing how to stop and not crash. We pedal on and on, afraid to quit, yet wishing desperately for someone to come and break our ring of futility. Only forgiveness can do that. Only forgiveness can disrupt our endlessly dull rotation in the same senseless orbit around a lumpy ball of bitter feelings.
Stephen Goforth
1. Maintain a healthy fear of conflict.
2. Be vague and general when you state your concerns.
3. Assume you know all the facts and you are totally right. (Do most of the talking)
4. With a touch of defiance, announce your willingness to discuss the matter with anyone but avoid any constructive conversations about it.
5. Latch tenaciously onto whatever evidence suggests the other person is jealous of you.
6. Judge the motivations of the other party based on previous experience, keeping track of failures and angry words.
7. Avoid possible solutions and go for total victory and unconditional surrender.
8. Pass the buck!
Ray Kraybill
(adopted from) Repairing the Breach
***THE VIRUS
We can now save many more lives from Covid-19 — until hospitals reach capacity
Immunity to coronavirus lingers for months, study finds
***JOURNALISM
AP to call elections for Alexa and other Big Tech channels
Political operatives are trying to disguise political propaganda as local journalism
Texas A&M University-Commerce cuts Mass Media and Journalism program
***THE BUSINESS OF JOURNALISM
Salt Lake Tribune to stop printing daily newspaper, ending a 149-year run
The coronavirus has closed more than 60 local newsrooms across America. And counting
***FAKES & FRAUDS
New ‘Media Manipulation Casebook’ from Harvard teaches how to detect misinformation campaigns ($)
Fake naked photos of thousands of women shared online
How a Fake Rent-a-Hitman Site Became an Accidental Murder-for-Hire Sting Operation
Twitter blocks White House Science Advisor's tweet ... for posting false or misleading information
How a Road Trip Through America's Battlegrounds Revealed a Nation Plagued by Misinformation
***COVID MISINFORMATION
Wikipedia and W.H.O. Join to Combat Covid Misinformation
A guide to overcoming COVID-19 misinformation
***ELECTION MISINFORMATION
Authorities ramp up fight against misinformation and voter suppression
Disinformation Moves From Social Networks to Texts
Robocalls, Rumors And Emails: Last-Minute Election Disinformation Floods Voters
The Election Will Bring a Hurricane of Misinformation
Rightwing news sites fuel voter fraud misinformation
***QANON
QAnon's 'Save the Children' morphs into popular slogan
QAnon learns to survive -- and even thrive -- after Silicon Valley’s crackdown
TikTok’s QAnon ban has been ‘buggy’
No One Fights QAnon Like the Global Army of K-Pop Superfans
***SOCIAL MEDIA
TikTok to add AP interactive election map to its election guide
8 facts about Americans and Instagram
Trolling for Truth on Social Media
Google, Facebook, Twitter clash with senators over free speech on social media
***RANSOMWARE
FBI warns ransomware assault threatens US healthcare system
Ransomware hits election infrastructure in Georgia county
New York County Computers Hit with Ransomware Attack
***STUDENT MEDIA
The University of South Carolina student newspaper staff is going on hiatus amid burnout concerns
Student Journalist arrested while doing his job
New study will assess the financial state of college newspapers
***LANGUAGE
US Senators Can't Be Bothered To Pronounce The Google CEO's Last Name Correctly
***READING & WRITING
When Kids Say ‘I’m not a reader’: How Librarians Can Disrupt Traumatic Reading Practices
These Are the Words That Were Added to the Dictionary the Year You Were Born
***POETRY
DeafBlind poet, essayist receives $50,000 grant
Sylvia Plath… Nature Writer? Marlena Williams on the Poet's Fraught Relationship with the Wild
Opportunities present themselves thousands of times while children are growing up when parents can either confront (children) with their tendency to avoid or escape responsibility for their own actions or can reassure them that certain situations are not their fault. But to seize these opportunities… requires of parents sensitivity to their children’s needs and the willingness to take the time and make the often uncomfortable effort to meet these needs. And this in turn requires love and the willingness to assume appropriate responsibility for the enhancement of their children’s growth.
M Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled
You need to understand your own characteristic ways of coping with endings. One way to do this is to think back over the endings in your own life. Go back to your early childhood and recall the first experiences involving endings that you can remember.. deaths in the family, your parents’ departure on a trip, the death of a pet, or a friend’s moving away. Continue forward on this our of your life history and note all the endings you can recall along the way. Some involved places, social groups, hobbies, or sports; others involved responsibilities, training, or jobs. Some endings make be hard to describe. They have few outward signs, but they may leave long-lasting scars: the ending of innocence or trust, for example, or the ending of responsibility or of a religious faith.
What you bring with you to a transitional situation is the style you have developed for dealing with endings. The product of early experience and late influence, this style is your own way of dealing with external circumstances and with the inner distress they stir up. Your style is likely to reflect your childhood family situation, for transitions tend to send family members to different tasks: One person feels all the grief and anxiety for the entire group, another comforts the mourner, another takes over the routine responsibilities, and yet another goes into a sort of parody of “being in control of the situation.”
What can you say about your own style of bringing situations to a close? It is abrupt and designed to deny the impact of the change, or is it so slow and gradual that it is hard to see that anything important is happening? Do you tend to be active or passive in these terminal situations? That is, is it your initiative that brings things to term or do events just happen to you?
Think about how you tend to act at the end of an evening at a friend’s house or a night on the town. Do you try to drag things out by starting new conversations and activities as others seem to be ready to leave, or do you say suddenly that it was a nice evening and dash out? Or what about some recent larger ending: leaving a job or moving from a neighborhood? Did you say goodbye to everyone, or did you leave a day ahead of schedule just so that you could avoid the goodbyes?
Everyone finds endings difficult, so your own style is not a sign that you have some “problem” that others don’t have. The person who leaves early and the one who stays late are both avoiding endings and the discomfort of facing a break in the continuity of things. Whether you are a dasher or a lingerer is largely the result of how you learned to avoid the “party’s-over” experience as a child.
William Bridges, The Way of Transition
Comparison is the thief of joy. -Theodore Roosevelt (born Oct. 27, 1858)
Chance has a genius for disguise. Frequently it appears in numbers that seem to form a pattern. People feel an overwhelming temptation to deduce that there is more to the events they witness than chance alone. Sometimes we are right. Often, though, we are suckered, and the apparent order merely resembles one.
To see why, take a bag of rice and chuck the contents straight into the air.
Observe the way the rice is scattered on the carpet at your feet. What you have done is create a chance distribution of rice grains. There will be thin patches here, thicker ones there, and every so often a much larger and distinct pile of rice. It has clustered.
Now imagine each grain of rice as a cancer case falling across a map of the United States. Wherever cases of cancer bunch, people demand an explanation. The rice patterns, however, don’t need an explanation. The rice shows that clustering, as the result of chance alone, is to be expected. The truly weird result would be if the rice had spread itself in a smooth, regular layer. Similarly, the genuinely odd pattern of illness would be an even spread of cases across the population.
This analogy draws no moral equivalence between cancer and rice patterns. Sometimes, certainly, a cancer cluster will point to a shared local cause. Often, though, the explanation lies in the complicated and myriad causes of disease, mingled with the complicated and myriad influences on where we choose to live, combined with accidents of timing, all in a collision of endless possibilities that, just like the endless collisions of those flying rice grains, come together to produce a cluster.
Michael Blastland and Andrew Dilnot, The Numbers Game
A person who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person. -Dave Barry
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