making peace
/Until you make peace with who you are, you’ll never be content with what you have.
- Doris Mortman
ideas that challenge / comfort / inspire
Social Media’s Outrage Mob
/So what is it about social media that transforms ordinary internet users into pitchfork-wielding villagers? Futurologist David Brin notes that feelings of righteous indignation can give people a drug-like high. “You go into the bathroom during one of these [indignant] snits,” he says, “and you look in the mirror and you have to admit, this feels great! ‘I am so much smarter and better than my enemies!’” Everyone can now get an instant, ego-boosting high by opening their computer or smartphone and joining in the online shaming of a perceived offender. But they haven’t made the world any better. All they’ve done is made a stranger’s life a little worse.
Theunis Bates writing in The Week Magazine
unstirred waters
/Unstirred waters lead to stagnation, and stagnation can't support life. - Ron Martoia
the love you receive
/Treasure the love you receive above all. It will survive long after your good health has vanished. -Og Mandino
selling out
/We "sell out" whenever we fail to take ownership over who we are. It's much easier to default to the expectations of friends/work/society/church rather than taking responsibility for our thinking and actions. It's a "sell out" in the sense of turning control over to someone/something else when we fail to take ownership over what God has entrusted us with.
Stephen Goforth
The Advantage of Disadvantages
/The big dream in our society is that if we work hard enough, we will eventually be able to experience a life without limitations or difficulties. It is also one of the biggest sources of friction in our society, creating disappointment, unnecessary suffering, and missed opportunities to live a full life. Some people spend their entire life waiting for that which will never, and can never, happen.
Limitations are not necessarily negative. In fact, I’m beginning to believe that they can give life definition, clarity and freedom. We are called to a freedom of and in limitations—not from. ...Unrestricted water is a swamp—because it lacks restriction, it also lacks depth.
The conclusion we arrive at all depends upon how we look at our limitations. Consider this late-night phone call I received one night. The voice on the other end inquired with great enthusiasm: “What does it mean for a horse to be handicapped!”
She hadn't identified herself, but I knew who it was. Leigh is a very special friend, and we’ve been through much together. She not only suffers from severe cerebral palsy, but has faced other, sometimes even more severe, difficulties- like losing her family at an age too young. Her feistiness and tenacity are not only her hallmarks, but are a contagious influence on us all.
I responded to her question, “Well, Leigh, I’m not exactly into horse racing, but as far as I understand they usually handicap the strongest horse by adding a little extra weight to make the race more fair."
"Yeah, I know!”
The she asked: “What does it mean if you handicap a golfer?”
Well, Leigh- again, I’m not really sure. But as far as I understand the rules, they handicap the best in order to make the game more exciting. The better the golfer, the larger his handicap.”
“Yeah, I know. And what does it mean when a bowler is handicapped?”
After we explored a number of sports, always reaching the same conclusion, there was a rather long pause. Then she said, with bold simplicity. “That’s it!”
That’s what, Leigh?” I replied, not understanding.
“That’s it! That’s why God gave me such a big handicap.. because I’m so special!”
It was one of the finest statement for tenacious dignity in spite of circumstance that I have ever heard.
Tim Hansel, You Gotta Keep Dancin’
articles of interest - June 19
/***JOURNALISM
The New York Times is tackling hateful comments with Machine Learning from an Alphabet tech incubator Poynter
How to Engage Viewers While Livestreaming News Video Strategist
What makes a great interview? This podcaster sat down with interviewing legends to find out Poynter
***THE BUSINESS OF JOURNALISM
At 'Washington Post,' Tech Is Increasingly Boosting Financial Performance NPR
Vocativ lays off entire editorial staff in shift to video Poynter
***FAKE NEWS
Our problem isn’t ‘fake news.’ Our problems are trust and manipulation (opinion) Wall Street Journal
The surprising number of American adults who think chocolate milk comes from brown cows Washington Post
Fake News: 10 Tips to Help You Identify and Avoid Misleading News Learn Bonds
***ART & DESIGN
10 Basic Principles of Visual Design Medium
Perfect Paragraph A web typography learning game Better Web Type
Winning Composition: Using the Rule of Thirds in Design Medium
The Importance of Cognitive Bias in Experience Design UX Design
Data Visualization and Scale: What If Only 100 People Existed on Earth? (video) Scholarly Kitchen
***PERSONAL GROWTH
The Terrifying Truth Becoming (my blog)
***GRAMMAR
A Story of Grammar Chronicle of Higher Ed
After Years Of Restraint, A Linguist Says 'Yes!' To The Exclamation Point NPR
***WRITING & READING
7 AP style changes for clear, concise PR copy PR Daily
***LANGUAGE
Turkey’s president wants to purge Western words from its language Economist
***LITERATURE
Mosul’s Library Without Books New Yorker
New US poet laureate eager to take poetry to new audience CNN
What Song Lyrics do you Consider Literature? New York Times
J.R.R. Tolkien’s Love Story New Republic
What Churchill And Orwell Had In Common: Both Could Say, 'My Side Is Wrong' NPR
***GENDER
Colorado chancellor suspended for not telling authorities of allegations of domestic violence by assistant coach Inside Higher Ed
Education Dept. closes transgender student cases as it pushes to scale back civil rights investigations Washington Post
***RACE & ETHNICITY ISSUES
Trump Administration Quietly Rolls Back Civil Rights Efforts Across Federal Government ProPublica
Punished for Anti-Racist Satire? A student at SMU said she was unfairly suspended for putting up fliers to respond to racist posters on campus Inside Higher Ed
Police Shootings: How A Culture Of Racism Can Infect Us All NPR
New guidance clears the way for investigating transgender bias cases: Advocates for transgender students say the document is inadequate Inside Higher Ed
***FREE SPEECH
2 students are testifying to the Senate about free speech on campus USA Today
***LEGAL ISSUES
Supreme Court Won't Hear 'Dancing Baby' Copyright Appeal Media Post
Gene Simmons of Kiss tries to Trademark the Sign Language Gesture for Love Washington Post
Supreme Court Strikes Down State Ban On Registered Sex Offender Social Media Use BuzzFeed
Supreme Court strikes down law blocking disparaging trademarks CNN
Texting suicide verdict could set bad precedent, legal experts say IndyStar
Lawsuit Claims University Fostered Antisemitism on Campus Washington Post
***BIG DATA & STATISTICS
How to cut thru the marketing buzzwords to spot a machine-learning snow job InfoWorld
The New York Times is tackling hateful comments with Machine Learning from an Alphabet tech incubator Poynter
Data scientist queries have to be watched to make sure they don't bog down processing in Hadoop and Spark clusters Search Data Management
Inspecting algorithms for bias and other potential problems with automated decision-making MIT Tech Review
The Big Data solutions that are particularly popular right now fit into one of 15 categories Datamation
***SOCIAL MEDIA
Facebook building feature to let users subscribe to news publications The Australian
Twitter Redesigned Itself to Make the Tweet Supreme Again Wired
Facebook introduces a GIF button in comments The Next Web
***PRODUCING MEDIA
Apple's New Transparency Is Huge for Podcasts Everywhere Wired
This free tool will help you make beautiful timelines Poynter
Audio and Podcasting Fact SheetPew Research Center Pew Research
***RELIGION
Supreme Court rules church plans exempt from ERISA Employee Benefit Advise
How St. Augustine Invented Sex The New Yorker
Rob Bell once questioned hell: Here’s why he is now taking aim at the Bible Religious News Service
'Conversion Therapy' Conference in San Diego at City View Church Draws Criticism and Protesters NBC San Diego
R.C. Sproul Jr. Accepts Plea Agreement, Given Probation in Drunk Driving Incident Christian Headlines
Fugitive polygamist Lyle Jeffs was found living in a Ford pickup after a year on the lam, FBI says Washington Post
Greg Laurie, Calvary Chapel’s Big Crusader, Joins Southern Baptist Convention Christianity Today
***BAPTISTS & THE ALT-RIGHT
Amid uproar, Southern Baptists condemn 'alt-right' movement Associated Press
What a unanimous Southern Baptist condemnation of the alt-right says about evangelicals in America Vox
***THE BUSINESS OF MEDIA
America’s answer to Russian propaganda TV (it’s own TV propaganda) Economist
***SEXUAL HARASSMENT & ASSAULT
Nonprofit sues Education Dept. for release of information on campus sex-assault investigations Washington Post
***SCIENCE
Empty rhetoric over data sharing slows science Nature News
***HEALTH
Cancer scientist who lost lab wins preliminary court victory against Steward Health Care Boston Globe
Researchers have ditched the autism-vaccine hypothesis. Here’s what they think actually causes it Vox
***PSYCHOLOGY
Study: Depression among teenage girls worse than previous thought Washington Post
***CRITICAL THINKING
Why You Can Never Argue with Conspiracy Theorists Wired
***PHILOSOPHY
The CIA Assesses the Power of French Post-Modern Philosophers: Read a Newly Declassified CIA Report from 1985 Open Culture
How Arabic Translators Helped Preserve Greek Philosophy … and the Classical Tradition Open Culture
***PRODUCTIVITY
Match Your Tasks to Your Energy Level Chronicle of Higher Ed
***HISTORY
***RESEARCH
What I learned from predatory publishers Biochemia Medica
How bad footnotes helped cause the opioid crisis Slate
***CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS
Does hookup culture differ on Catholic campuses? The Conversation
***TEACHING
***ACADEMIC LIFE
A dispute about a sociology test question on slave families ended in a lecturer's termination this spring at the University of Tennessee Inside Higher Ed
It’s a Dangerous Business, Being a Female Professor Chronicle of Higher Ed
Business school whistleblower claims his firing was retaliation Kansas City Star
Chemist wins injunction against university trying to revoke her degree Retraction Watch
***STUDENT MEDIA
When Student Journalists Need Defending these Lawyers Swoop in for Free Washington Post
***STUDENT LIFE
If you’re eligible for CSU, you’ll be guaranteed a slot under California budget deal Sacramento Bee
the test
/The ultimate test of a relationship is to disagree but to hold hands. -Alexandra Penney
What we really believe
/Every person expects to be treated as a person. The proof that he really believes there are some unconditional values is that he expects his freedom and dignity to be respected. In his actions, he may not always respect others, but in his reactions he proves that he always expects others to respect his freedom and dignity. Hence, human expectations are the key to what a man believes to be absolute.
Norman Geisler, Options in Contemporary Christian Ethics
to love
/To love another person is to see the face of God. - Victor Hugo in Les Miserables.
without Hope
/To live without Hope is to cease to live. - Fyodor Dostoevsky
Minding the nurture gap
/Upbringing affects opportunity. Upper-middle-class homes are not only richer (with two professional incomes) and more stable; they are also more nurturing. In the 1970s there were practically no class differences in the amount of time that parents spent talking, reading and playing with toddlers. Now the children of college-educated parents receive 50% more of what Robert Putnam calls “Goodnight Moon” time (after a popular book for infants).
(Putnam reports in his book “Our Kids” that) educated parents engage in a non-stop Socratic dialogue with their children, helping them to make up their own minds about right and wrong, true and false, wise and foolish. This is exhausting, so it helps to have a reliable spouse with whom to share the burden, not to mention cleaners, nannies and cash for trips to the theatre.
Working-class parents, who have less spare capacity, are more likely to demand that their kids simply obey them. In the short run this saves time; in the long run it prevents the kids from learning to organise their own lives or think for themselves. Poor parenting is thus a barrier to social mobility, and is becoming more so as the world grows more complex and the rewards for superior cognitive skills increase.
make him mad
/To obtain a man's opinion of you, make him mad. -Oliver Wendell Holmes
sacrificing the gift
/To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift - Steve Prefontaine
Popular People Live Longer (sort of)
/Dozens of studies reveal that children’s popularity can be measured reliably by age 3, and it remains remarkably stable not just through the next dozen years of primary and secondary education but also across contexts, as they move from community to community and into adulthood.
Yet this same research reveals that there is more than one type of popularity, and most of us may be investing in the wrong kind. Likability reflects kindness, benevolent leadership and selfless, prosocial behavior. Research suggests that this form of popularity offers lifelong advantages, and leads to relationships that confer the greatest health benefits.
Likability is markedly different from status — an ultimately less satisfying form of popularity that reflects visibility, influence, power and prestige. Status can be quantified by social media followers; likability cannot.
Anyone who has been to high school will recognize the distinction — and recall that those high in one category are often low in the other. Research suggests that despite the great temptations to gain status, those who achieve it ultimately experience greater unhappiness and dissatisfaction, while those who are likable have far greater satisfaction and success.
We may be built by evolution to care deeply about popularity, but it’s up to us to choose the nature of the relationships we want with our peers.
Which means that it wouldn’t kill you to step away from Twitter once in a while.
Mitch Prinstein writing in the New York Times
articles of interest - June 12
/***JOURNALISM
The 10 secrets to great journalism hidden away in ‘Master of None’ Poynter
Think your journalism job is hard? Try making a podcast from prison Poynter
Google launches news literacy program Axios
Will your FOIA request succeed? This new machine will tell you Poynter
A new model for high-impact investigative reporting Columbia Journalism Review
After charges of sexism, New York Times changes headline on Katy Tur profile Poynter
Conservatives Despise Fact-checking Industry Washington Post
Without a public editor, The New York Times’ new Reader Center aims to connect with its audience Poynter
***JOURNALISM & LEAKS
Did 'Intercept' Out Its Intelligence Source? NPR
Ethical journalism: what to do - and not to do - with leaked emails The Conversation
***THE BUSINESS OF JOURNALISM
Growth in mobile news use driven by older adults Pew Research
***FAKE NEWS
Reuters’ new survey suggests that readers are getting (a bit) smarter about verifying breaking news Harvard’s Nieman Lab
In a Fake Fact Era, Schools Teach the ABCs of News Literacy Wired
A Pro-Trump Conspiracy Theorist, a False Tweet and a Runaway Story New York Times
***BIG DATA & STATISTICS
Algorithms might make life fairer if they are well designed-but how can we know whether they are so designed? MIT’s Technology Review
Artificial intelligence will put spies out of work, too Chicago Tribune
Experts predict when artificial intelligence will exceed human performance MIT’s Technology Review
What’s driving big data into the cloud, and what are the benefits? Inside Big Data
Machine learning comes to Google Sheets, boosting data visualization for users Tech Republic
NGA, NRO, NSA joining DoD In Silicon Valley Breaking Defense
***SOCIAL MEDIA
Facebook Live adds closed captioning for deaf and hard of hearing USA Today
Discourse Theory as Explained by Memes Medium
Skype gets Snapchat treatment Makeover Mashable
***PRODUCING MEDIA
The Lowdown on Livestreaming Platforms Video Strategist
***PERSONAL GROWTH
Somewhere between boredom and anxiety Becoming (my blog)
***GRAMMAR
The A.V. Club copyedited “Predisent” Trump’s lawyer, and the results were not good AV Club
A Word, Please: To stay a while or awhile, that is the question LA Times
Hyphens can be tricky, but they need not drive you crazy The Economist
***WRITING & READING
John Grisham’s Do’s and Don’ts for Writing Popular Fiction New York Times
How to Write Like James Comey Life Hacker
American Writers Museum is just a dead writers’ society Chicago Reader
Don't Judge a Book by Its Cover—Judge It by Its First Page Life Hacker
***LANGUAGE
The Science of Thingummyjigs (and Other Words on the Tip of Your Tongue) Jstor
Discourse Theory as Explained by Memes Medium
***LITERATURE
In Nobel speech, Bob Dylan reminds us reading can be fun Charlotte Observer
Allen Ginsberg’s Howl Manuscripts Now Digitized & Put Online, Revealing the Beat Poet’s Creative Process Open Culture
Stop calling Amazon's new thing with books a 'bookstore' Mashable
***GENDER
Advocates Warn that cuts to the office of Civil Right Would Further Slow Resolution of Backlogged Title IX Cases Inside Higher Ed
***RACE & ETHNICITY ISSUES
Interracial Marriages Face Pushback 50 Years After Loving NPR
When the patient is racist, how should the doctor respond? (opinion) Stat News
***FREE SPEECH
The New Censorship on Campus (opinion) Chronicle of Higher Ed
Trump’s Twitter Blocking May Violate First Amendment Wired
Is there a First Amendment right to follow President Trump’s Twitter account? The Conversation
Two-day auction planned for campus assets of Nazarene Bible College The Gazeette
***LEGAL ISSUES
Three Significant ways the Emoji revolution will impact the Law SSRN
How your ugly booking photos (and Tiger’s) became a commodity for cops, hustlers and journalists The Marshall Project
***TECHNOLOGY
Civilian Drones The Economist
Helping blind people navigate: A new way to assist those with poor eyesight The Economist
***RELIGION
'The Shack' Director Defends Portraying God as Black Woman, Says Bible Was Written Allegorically Christian Post
Christians faced widespread harassment in 2015, but mostly in Christian-majority countries Pew Research
Is It Hateful To Believe In Hell? Bernie Sanders' Questions Prompt Backlash NPR
Trump to evangelicals: We're 'under siege,' will be stronger Associated Press
The party registration of religious leaders New York Times
Southern Baptists Embrace Gender-Inclusive Language in the Bible The Atlantic
How Billy Graham Mainstreamed Evangelicals The Daily Beast
Fired gay music director loses lawsuit against church, archdiocese Daily Herald
***MUSIC
Bob Dylan 2016 Nobel Lecture in Literature
***FILM
How Hollywood Came to Fear and Loathe Rotten Tomatoes Vanity Fair
How Filmmakers Captured a Daring Escape From ISIS Territory National Geographic
***THE BUSINESS OF MEDIA
Snapchat's Growth Dips As Competitive Pressures Mount Media Post
You can now buy Snapchat video ads straight from the company’s website Recode
Trending Down: Newspaper, Mag Revenues Slip Again Media Post
The Illusion of Measuring What Customers Want – Jobs to be Done JTBD.into
***SCIENCE
It’s time for universities to crack down on fake science publishers and the academics who use them, legal experts say Ottawa Citizen
Why we can't trust academic journals to tell the scientific truth The Guardian
Quantum mechanics, relativity theory and the nature of time: Time may be fuzzy. If so, the idea of causality may be in trouble The Economist
***HEALTH
The opioid crisis changed how doctors think about pain Vox
A single paragraph published nearly 40 years ago contributed to the opioid epidemic. What can we learn from this? Health News Review
***PSYCHOLOGY
Jane Brody promoting the pseudoscience of Barbara Fredrickson in the New York Times PLOS
The Chatbot Therapist Will See You Now Wired
Beauty sleep is a real thing, research shows BBC
Remembering the Murder You Didn’t Commit The New Yorker
***PHILOSOPHY
The 18th century Comes Alive in Harvard's 'Philosophy Chamber' Boston Globe
***CRITICAL THINKING
Facts Alone Won’t Convince People To Vaccinate Their Kids FiveThirtyEight
***ETHICS
When is a leak ethical? The Conversation
***HIGHER ED
Our college students are changing. Why aren’t our higher education policies? (opinion) Washington Post
University of Michigan campus gun ban upheld by Court of Appeals Michigan Live
Private college tuition is rising faster than inflation .... again USA Today
Jerry Falwell Jr. says he will be part of a Trump education initiative Politico
Baylor provost Jones resigns after one year in the role Waco Tribune
***TEACHING
Engaging Students Through Tests Chronicle of Higher Ed
Student asks court to force poetry professor to give her an A Stevens Point Journal
New study: Students at most risk may be those least well served by online education Inside Higher Ed
How to Use Facebook’s CrowdTangle in the Classroom PBS Media Shift
Facebook Testing Features that Lets Users Teach online Courses Inside Higher Ed
***RESEARCH
Do ResearchGate Scores create ghost academic reputations? Springer
A new tool “checks that the data sets underlying published studies are made freely available” Nature
Reverse Engineering JCR’s Self-Citation and Citation Stacking Thresholds Scholarly Kitchen
***STUDENT MEDIA
Inside Odyssey: The Decline of a College Media Empire Fortune
You Don’t Have to Major in Computer Science to Do It as a Career MIT Tech Review
***STUDENT LIFE
Inside the Meme Thread, a Growing Forum for College Students Nationwide Chronicle of Higher Ed
We should thank millennials for ruining these terrible products New York Post
Getting to Know.. Millennials Bloomberg
For Students Going Overseas, an ‘America First’ Presidency Complicates Their Studies Chronicle of Higher Ed
***ACADEMIC LIFE
Portrait of Faculty Mental Health Inside Higher Ed
Prof: a violation of academic freedom to cancel a course that includes material on his university’s recent fake-classes scandal Chronicle of Higher Ed
American University of Beirut Prof (with two U.S. graduate degrees) is refused U.S. admission to present at a San Diego conference Inside Higher Ed
Coming to terms with mental health and academic failures New York Times
Rutgers Philosophy Prof Accused of Raping a Disabled Man gets Conviction Overturned Inside Higher Ed
basic as breathing
/To be manifestly loved, to be openly admired are human needs as basic as breathing. Why, then, wanting them so much ourselves, do we deny them so often to others?
Arthur Gordon
Somewhere between boredom and anxiety
/A comfortable routine can turn on us, leaving our creativity stifled, dulling us to other possibilities. We become lethargic, sleepwalking through life. Boredom soon nips at our heels.
At the other end of the experience spectrum, we have bungee-jumping thrill seekers. Tired of sexual escapades and rock climbing, they sometimes self-medicate to starve off boredom. Drugs can stimulate many feelings: euphoria, depression, anxiety, even fear. But none induce boredom (though some, like cocaine, can leave the user with a devastating boredom, after the drug has done its thing). Sex, food, drugs, and gambling each stimulate the same dopamine reward pathway in the brain.
Psychologists tell us the cure for chronic tedium is not high-sensation thrills. Somewhere between boredom and anxiety there is a sweet spot called flow. It's an optimal level of arousal. As Dr. Richard Friedman writes:
Flow happens when a person’s skills and talent perfectly match the challenge of an activity: playing in the zone, where there is total and un-self-conscious absorption in the activity. Make the task too challenging and anxiety results; make it too easy and boredom emerges. Flow get to the heart of fun. It’s not hard to see why the enforced tranquility of a Caribbean vacation could be a dreadful bore for a workaholic but bliss for a couch potato: temperament, as well as talent, have to match the activity or there is trouble in paradise.
Stephen Goforth
To achieve great things
/To achieve great things, two things are needed; a plan, and not quite enough time. -Leonard Bernstein
hamburgers cause traffic accidents
/Most people who die in car crashes have eaten a hamburger less than a week before the tragic event cuts their lives short. Does this mean eating hamburgers cause traffic accidents? Nope. A connection between the two events has to be established before you can unfurl and plant the “cause and effect” flag.
That's why, when it comes to medical issues, there needs to be numerous studies pointing in the same direction. Studies with mixed results suggest there could be other causes at work besides the one we are investigating.
Consider this: Rich people may live longer because they have access to better health care. Do they live longer because they are rich? Well, sort of. That's what gives them access to the better health care.
The whole cause/effect thing gets especially confusing when things happen around the same time frame. We have a natural desire to tie them together with a big bow. Remember the saying about “trouble coming in threes”? When we begin looking for groups of three, we tend to remember those times when our hypothesis was confirmed. We think it’s true because we don’t notice or simply discount situations when life didn’t fit with our triplet theory.
Stephen Goforth