We constantly compare our actions and beliefs to those of our peers, and then alter them to fit in. This means that if our social group believes something, we are more likely to follow the herd.

This effect of social influence on behaviour was nicely demonstrated back in 1961 by the street corner experiment. The experiment was simple (and fun) enough for you to replicate. Just pick a busy street corner and stare at the sky for 60 seconds.

Most likely very few folks will stop and check what you are looking at – in this situation Milgram found that about 4% of the passersby joined in. Now get some friends to join you with your lofty observations. As the group grows, more and more strangers will stop and stare aloft. By the time the group has grown to 15 sky gazers, about 40% of the by-passers will have stopped and craned their necks along with you. You have almost certainly seen the same effect in action at markets where you find yourself drawn to the stand with the crowd around it.

The principle applies just as powerfully to ideas. If more people believe a piece of information, then we are more likely to accept it as true. And so if, via our social group, we are overly exposed to a particular idea then it becomes embedded in our world view. In short social proof is a much more effective persuasion technique than purely evidence-based proof, which is of course why this sort of proof is so popular in advertising (“80% of mums agree”).

Mark Lorch writing in Business Insider

September 25, 2017

articles of interest - Sept. 25

September 25, 2017/ Stephen Goforth

***SOCIAL MEDIA

How Baby Boomers Use Social Media Daily Infographic

Facebook adds human reviewers after 'Jew haters' ad scandal BBC News

What We Do and Don’t Know About Facebook’s New Political Ad Transparency Initiative ProPublica

WhatsApp gets blocked behind China's 'Great Firewall,' joining Facebook and Instagram Mashable

***PRODUCING MEDIA

Digital Tools Available Now to Add Power and Simplify Every Journalist’s Job Editor and Publisher

10 Photoshop editing skills every photographer should know Tech Radar

A Deep Data Dive into the Power of Branded Video Video Strategist

***INTERNET

Google's Inbox and Gmail finally turn addresses and phone numbers into interactive links Tech Republic

***THE BUSINESS OF MEDIA

Core local TV broadcast advertising dollars could be in for a tough stretch in the next few years, as digital media dollars continue to climb Media Post

***JOURNALISM

The future of news is humans talking to machines Nieman Lab

Post-Dispatch demands charges be dropped against reporter covering protest St. Louis Today

Twitter dustups are a reminder: Journalists, you are what you tweet Poynter

Turkey’s purge of 'dissent' is destroying press freedom Huck Mag

The Media Has A Probability Problem FiveThirtyEight

Journalism Resource Guide on Behavioral Health The Carter Center

Out of ‘Spotlight,’ the movie, comes the Spotlight Fellowship Boston Globe

“Humiliating”: A deeply inaccurate book review has set off much consternation, and soul-searching at the New York Times Vanity Fair

***THE BUSINESS OF JOURNALISM

Broadcaster opts to hire local reporters over parachute coverage Columbia Journalism Review

Fort Wayne’s News-Sentinel Is Ending Its Print Edition and Moving to Digital Ad Week

***FAKE NEWS

That Hilarious Tweet About an Instructor’s Big Mistake? Almost Certainly Fake Chronicle of Higher Ed

Snopes.com and the Search for Facts in a Post-Fact World Wired

Knight's new initiative to counter misinformation includes more than $1.3 million for fact-checking projects Poynter

***BIG DATA & STATISTICS

Microsoft launches new Machine Learning tools for developers all related to the Azure Machine TechCrunch

It’s important to be able to separate fact from fiction-Here are eight myths about Big Data & Predictive Analytics Information Week

Flash technology accelerates predictive analytics software Search Storage

linguistics is not being applied in the single most important arena that needs it: artificial intelligence Chronicle of Higher Ed

Machine learning Is making video game characters smarter using procedural rendering Fast Company

Google’s advice on how publishers can take advantage of machine learning Google

Apple’s ‘Neural Engine’ infuses the iPhone with AI smarts Wired

The Amazing Ways Coca Cola Uses Artificial Intelligence And Big Data To Drive Success Forbes

***GRAMMAR

Ben Yagoda applauds the new Chicago Manual of Style's (limited) acceptance of singular they Chronicle of Higher Ed

A Word, Please: Context is key to some editing rules LA Times

***WRITING & READING

The Psychological Benefits of Writing Regularly Medium

Poetry For Kids Who Are 'Just No Good At Rhyming' NPR

***FREE SPEECH

A chilling study shows how hostile college students are toward free speech (opinion) Washington Post

Views among college students regarding the First Amendment: Results from a new survey Brookings

Jury to Decide Whether or Not "Comic-Con" Has Become Generic Hollywood Reporter

Experts Criticize Survey on student Attitudes on First Amendment and violence as “junk science” Inside Higher Ed

When to pull the FIRE Alarm: Common types of censorship on campus The FIRE

Shia LaBeouf Says Calling Bartender "Racist" Was Protected Speech Hollywood Reporter

‘Substantial cost’: University of California foots major security bill for free speech Washington Post

A Cop With A Tattoo He Swears Isn’t A “Nazi Tattoo” Says A Lot About Police Free Speech BuzzFeed

The Limits Of Free Speech In Germany NPR

Germany’s New Social Media Law Puts a Price on Hate Speech PBS Media Shift

***LEGAL ISSUES

Defamation Lawsuit Against Donald Trump Gains Support From Law Professors Hollywood Reporter

Federal Judge Rejects Couple’s Argument for Refusing Gay Customers NBC News

Iowa's Supreme Court Hears Dispute Over $75 Speeding Ticket NPR

All-Star Concert to End Global Poverty Brings Lawsuit Over Video Footage Hollywood Reporter

Carter Page, former Trump adviser, suing over Huffington Post, Yahoo News articles iMediaEthics

Starz Beats 'Power' Copyright Lawsuit Hollywood Reporter

***RELIGION

America’s Shifting Religious Makeup Could Spell Trouble For Both Parties FiveThirtyEight

Colin Kaepernick vs. Tim Tebow: Christianity on its knees The Washington Post

Filipino Megachurch Buys Entire Ghost Town in Connecticut for $1.8 Million Next Shark

Lawsuit claims a North Texas medical group tried to force staff to be ‘more godly’ Dallas News

More Than Big Hair and Money: Jim, Tammy Faye and the Media “Holy Wars” of the 80s Religious Dispatches

20% of Americans Are on the Threshold of Religion Christianity Today

James Faulkner, Jim Caviezel, Olivier Martinez to Star in ‘Paul, Apostle of Christ’ Variety

***RELIGION: PREACHERS IN THE NEWS

Dallas pastor Robert Jeffress says kneeling NFL players should thank God they're not being shot in the head Dallas News

Benny Hinn Is My Uncle, but Prosperity Preaching Isn’t for Me Christianity Today

Erica Lea to Become First Openly LGBTQ Lead Pastor of Mennonite Church USA Sojourners

Reverend David Mainse 1936-2017 Context

LA pastor detained by ICE since July released from custody Daily News

*** RELIGION: MUSIC

Remembering the Influential Life of Rich Mullins ChristianHeadlines

American Idol winner performs the national anthem with a Bible verse written on her hand New York Daily News

Christian singer Natalie Grant undergoing thyroid surgery Daily Herald

***TENNESSEE CHURCH SHOOTER

Masked gunman rampages through Nashville church; usher uses personal weapon to subdue shooter Washington Post

Suicide threat and domestic disputes: Antioch church shooting suspect had history with police The Tennessean

***ART & DESIGN

When AI Design Websites Wired

***MUSIC

Bob Dylan's New Bootleg Series Will Spotlight Gospel Period Rolling Stone

Hear the Pieces Mozart Composed When He Was Only Five Years Old Open Culture

Taylor Swift Sued Over "Shake It Off" Lyrics Hollywood Reporter

***FILM

Martin Scorsese to Teach His First Online Course on Filmmaking Open Culture

***SEXUAL HARASSMENT & ASSAULT

Is There A 'Better Way' To Handle Campus Sexual Assault? NPR

Ruling in high-profile sexual harassment case suggests that foreign students in online courses have no recourse under Title IX Inside Higher Ed

Colleges Must not Turn back the Clock on Efforts to Combat Sexual Assault (opinion) Washington Post

What You Need to Know About the New Guidance on Title IX Chronicle of Higher Ed

What Does the End of Obama’s Title IX Guidance Mean for Colleges? Chronicle of Higher Ed

***CAMPUS SAFETY

After fatal shooting of a student, experts question why Georgia Tech doesn’t arm its officers with stun guns Inside Higher Ed

The Campus Police Officer Who Shot And Killed A Student Was "Still Learning" According To His Supervisor BuzzFeed

***ACADEMIC LIFE

Do We Still Value the Dissertation? The Chronicle of Higher Education Chronicle of Higher Ed

White, male faculty earn higher salaries than women, minorities at public universities Journalists Resources

Article on the supposed benefits of Western colonialism has prompted calls for retraction Inside Higher Ed

***BUSINESS

The Most Important Rule for Startup Success Jstor

***HEALTH

Brain stimulation partly awakens patient after 15 years in vegetative state Stat News

Boston scientists test ‘chatbot’ that offers spiritual, emotional guidance to terminally ill Washington Times

***SCIENCE

Majority of Americans rely on general outlets for science news but more say specialty sources get the facts right about science Journalism.org

Key takeaways on Americans’ science news habits Pew Research Center

All people with blue eyes have a common ancestor Business Insider

Academic Myth Busters Part Two: Four scientific myths that your teachers passed off as true Study Breaks

California Finally Has an Official State Dinosaur Atlas Obscura

***PHILOSOPHY

On Retraction in Philosophy Digressions & Impressions

Descartes Is Not Our Father: History tells us he invented modern philosophy. That history is wrong. New York Times

Intuition: Epistemology Wireless Philosophy

***SOCIAL ISSUES

Liberals fault the economy for the drop in marriage among the less educated, while conservatives blame changing values. Both may be onto something. New York Times

This Stanford Professor Has a Theory on Why 2017 Is Filled With Jerks New York Magazine

***RESEARCH

British Press Watchdog Says Climate Change Article Was Faulty New York Times

Finding typos in a paper post-publication Academia Obscura

Do We Need A Self-Citation Index? The Scholarly Kitchen

Is predatory scientific publishing “becoming an organized industry”? Physics Today

A Call for Honesty in Christian Scholarship Patheos

***HIGHER ED

The Education Department Will Allow Two Large For-Profit Colleges To Become Nonprofits BuzzFeed

Michelle Jones’s story reveals entrenched racism, sexism, and classism among Harvard elites (opinion) Vox

Student Protestors And Their Faculty Allies At The Evergreen State College Win A Battle But Lose The War Huffington Post

5 Wheaton College football players face felony charges in hazing incident Chicago Tribune

Lawyers -- Email of former Baylor president David Garland raises red flags ESPN

***TEACHING

Survey: Blended Learning on the Rise Campus Technology

Teaching Online Takes More Time Than in Person Inside Higher Ed

Do Laptops Help Learning? A Look At The Only Statewide School Laptop Program NPR

***STUDENT MEDIA

University of Louisville pulls funding from student newspaper Courier-Journal

University of Mississippi Cartoonist harassed by White Supremacists Cartoonist Rights

***STUDENT LIFE

Study: teens increasingly put off traditional markers of adulthood Washington Post

Resources to Take Advantage of Your Senior Year Study Breaks

Students Have new Ways of Measuring Degrees of Success Washington Post

UW student creates controversial clothing line NBC-15

***JOBS & INTERNSHIPS

BuzzFeed Emerging Writers Fellowship 2018 BuzzFeed

Dow Jones News Fund arranges summer internships

September 22, 2017

the forest would be silent

September 22, 2017/ Stephen Goforth

The forest would be quite silent if only the most beautiful birds sang.

September 20, 2017

forget

September 20, 2017/ Stephen Goforth

Forget the times of your distress, but never forget what they taught you. -Gesser

September 18, 2017

articles of interest - Sept 18

September 18, 2017/ Stephen Goforth

***THE BUSINESS OF MEDIA

61% of young adults in U.S. watch mainly streaming TV Pew Research Center

The magazine industry finds itself fighting on unfamiliar terrain, best suited to their rivals Talking New Media

***JOURNALISM

How to cover DACA as a student journalist: advice from professionals Student Press Law Center

Journalist from Mexico denied entry to U.S. for D.C. press event CBS News

Report for America aims to get 1,000 journalists in local newsrooms in next 5 years Poynter

How the Birmingham Mail Separated Print from Digital to Save the Newspaper PBS Media Shift

***THE BUSINESS OF JOURNALISM

No Apology, No Explanation: Fox News And The Seth Rich Story NPR

BuzzFeed News embraces video, skips the ‘pivot’ Columbia Journalism Review

***FAKE NEWS

WSJ, Getty unpublish fake photographs from phony conflict reporter imediaethics

***TECHNOLOGY

Apple’s FaceID Could Be a Powerful Tool for Mass Spying (opinion) Wired

Apple's Facial Recognition Software Has Privacy Advocates Worried NPR

iPhone X price, features widen gap between haves and have-nots CNET

What It Might Take To Stop The Data Breaches NPR

A long-range, frugal new chip could be just what a smart city needs Economist

***TECHNOLOGY: FACIAL RECOGNITION

Ever better and cheaper, face-recognition technology is spreading Economist

Advances in AI are used to spot signs of sexuality Economist

Researchers produce images of people’s faces from their genomes Economist

***BIG DATA & STATISTICS

The Amazing Ways Coca Cola Uses Artificial Intelligence And Big Data To Drive Success Forbes

How technology is changing the culture of the intelligence community Federal News Radio

***SOCIAL MEDIA

Dude is pumped to discover Snapchat's ridiculous new feature Mashable

Confessions of an Instagram influencer: Brands just want big numbers Digiday

***PRODUCING MEDIA

Phones Are Changing How People Shoot and Watch Video Wired

Tell a Story with your Data with StorylineJS Chronicle of Higher Ed

***INTERNET

Equifax hired a music major as chief security officer Mediaite

***PERSONAL GROWTH

The “No one to blame but themselves” rule Becoming (my blog)

6 Reasons Good People Turn Into Monsters Cracked

***HUMANITIES /STEM

Science tries to make sense of humanities: This is your brain on art Washington Post

***GRAMMAR

The meaning of Entitlement Chronicle of Higher Ed

***WRITING & READING

How Reading Rewires Your Brain for More Intelligence and Empathy Big Think

***LANGUAGE

Research Shows Spanish Speakers Take Longer To Learn English. Why? NPR

Merriam-Webster adds 'alt-right' and 'sriracha' and 250 more words to its dictionary LA Times

***GENDER

Women dominate journalism schools, but newsrooms are still a different story Poynter

***RACE & ETHNICITY ISSUES

What ESPN Employees Are Saying About The Jemele Hill Situation On Their Private Message Board DeadSpin

How the U.S. Hispanic population is changing Pew Research

4 Books That Will Help You Understand Race in Modern America Study Breaks

***FREE SPEECH

Arguments over free speech on campus are not left v right Economist

What Lies Ahead in the Campus-Speech Wars? Experts discuss the challenges they see on the horizon — and what colleges can do about them Chronicle of Higher Ed

The Free Speech-Hate Speech Trade-Off (opinion) New York Times

What Lies Ahead in the Campus-Speech Wars? Experts discuss the challenges they see on the horizon — and what colleges can do about them Chronicle of Higher Ed

Some Americans don’t believe Muslims, atheists have First Amendment rights Religion News Service

Incidents at Harvard and Catholic Universities run counter to narrative about campus speaker controversies Inside Higher Ed

How First Amendment Battles Are Shaping Up in the Social Media Age Hollywood Reporter

***LEGAL ISSUES

Website Inaccessible to Visually Impaired Violated the Americans with Disabilities Act Lexology

Facebook Wins Appeal Over Allegedly Discriminatory Content Removal–Sikhs for Justice v. Facebook Technology and Marketing Law Blog

How Spotify's Argument in Copyright Lawsuit Could Upend the Music Industry's Newfound Recovery Billboard

If ESPN Wants to Discipline Jemele Hill, She Might Have Law on Her Side New York Times

Conan O'Brien to Probe Whether Copyright Office Was Duped by Tom Brady Joke Hollywood Reporter

Doubling (& Tripling) Down on Trademark Protection For Secret Menu Items–In-N-Out v. Smashburger Technology & Marketing Law Blog

***RELIGION

A Booming New Jersey Evangelical Church whose fiery founder who embraced the K.K.K. New York Times

Houston Church Blocks Jewish Lesbian From Volunteering to Help Hurricane Victims Newsweek

Died: Nabeel Qureshi, Author of ‘Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus’ Christianity Today

'Jesus People' – a movement born from the 'Summer of Love' LA Times

***ART & DESIGN

Banksy is back with artwork that expertly skewers how institutions treat street art Mashable

***SEXUAL HARASSMENT & ASSAULT

Liberalism and the Campus Rape Tribunals New York Times

The Trump administration’s approach to rape on campus is welcome: Barack Obama’s government put undue pressure on colleges to secure convictions in return for public money Economist

***SOCIAL ISSUES

As U.S. marriage rate hovers at 50%, education gap in marital status widens Pew Research Center

***HEALTH

What Makes People Like (and Dislike) Their Doctors? Priceonomics

***HEALTH: CANCER

Science will win the technical battle against cancer. But that is only half the fight Economist

New types of therapy mean cancer is going to become ever more survivable Economist

Understanding cancer’s unruly origins helps early diagnosis Economist

Enrolling the immune system in the fight against cancer Economist

Today’s anti-cancer tools are ever better wielded Economist

The developing world needs better cancer strategies Economist

***BUSINESS

Why American Workers Pay Twice as Much in Taxes as Wealthy Investors Bloomberg

Millennials mostly watch TV after it’s aired: Older people still watch more live TV, but that’s changing NPR

***PSYCHOLOGY

The Social Life of Opioids: New studies strengthen ties between loss, pain and drug use Scientific American

***PHILOSOPHY

Feminism and the Future of Philosophy New York Times

Philosophy, Descartes and the dance of life The Guardian

***PRODUCTIVITY

The Silicon Valley avant-garde have turned to LSD in a bid to increase their productivity 1843 Magazine

***RESEARCH

This search engine makes finding public records less painful Poynter

“Do You Expect Me to Just Give Away My Data?” Eos

Creating Incentives to Address the Replication Crisis in Science Undark

COPE Ethical Guidelinesfor Peer Reviewers Pub Ethics

Publishing in parallel: when two societies work together Royal Society

***HIGHER ED

How U.S. News college rankings promote economic inequality on campus Politico

The subtle ways colleges discriminate against poor students, explained with a cartoon Vox

Report Faults U. of Virginia on Response to White-Supremacist Rally Chronicle of Higher Ed

Christian Universities: Moving Ahead by Standing Still (opinion) Context

***TEACHING

Atmospheric scientist at Illinois is on leave after refusing to provide lecture slides to student with disabilities Inside Higher Ed

***STUDENT MEDIA

Five reasons you should join your college newspaper Medium

UT Austin journalist assaulted while covering protest Student Press Law Center

***STUDENT LIFE

Georgia Tech Student-Activist Shot Dead by Campus Police Fox 5 Atlanta

Student reporters kicked out of “open” student government meeting Student Press Law Center

Students lose roughly four in 10 of the credits they accumulate before transferring: The transfer route in California is a "complex and costly maze” Inside Higher Ed

How Successful Valedictorians Are After High School Money Magazine

As Millennials Get Older, Many Are Buying SUVs To Drive To Their Suburban Homes NPR

Why Millennials should be really worried about the Equifax breach Money Magazine

DACA student targeted by classmate says university has done nothing to help CBS News

Yale University will discontinue the terms “freshman” and “upperclassman” in its official documents Inside Higher Ed

How to choose a student credit card USA Today

How to Decide If Moving Off Campus Is Right for You Study Breaks

***ACADEMIC LIFE

Evergreen professor at center of protests resigns; college will pay $500,000 The Seattle Times

Republicans view professors more ‘coldly’ than Democrats do Pew Research Center

How a Group of Instructors Is Standing Up to the Right-Wing Outrage Machine Chronicle of Higher Ed

College puts adjunct on leave over tweet about teaching 'future dead cops' Inside Higher Ed

September 18, 2017

An Easy Fix

September 18, 2017/ Stephen Goforth

For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.

H. L. Mencken

September 16, 2017

The Backfire Effect

September 16, 2017/ Stephen Goforth

The backfire effect happens when the myth ends up becoming more memorable than the fact. One of the most striking examples of this was seen in a study evaluating a “Myths and Facts” flyer about flu vaccines. Immediately after reading the flyer, participants accurately remembered the facts as facts and the myths as myths. But just 30 minutes later this had been completely turned on its head, with the myths being much more likely to be remembered as “facts”. The thinking is that merely mentioning the myths actually helps to reinforce them. And then as time passes you forget the context in which you heard the myth – in this case during a debunking – and are left with just the memory of the myth itself.

Mark Lorch writing in Business Inisder

September 15, 2017

the opportunity

September 15, 2017/ Stephen Goforth

Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently. - Henry Ford

September 14, 2017

failure

September 14, 2017/ Stephen Goforth

Failure is success if we learn from it. – Malcolm Forbes

September 13, 2017

Confirmation Bias

September 13, 2017/ Stephen Goforth

You probably like to believe that your beliefs are the result of years of experience and objective analysis of the information you have available. The reality is that all of us are susceptible to a tricky problem known as a confirmation bias. While we like to imagine that our beliefs are rational, logical, and objective, the fact is that our ideas are often based on paying attention to the information that upholds our ideas and ignoring the information that challenges our existing beliefs.

A confirmation bias is a type of cognitive bias that involves favoring information that confirms previously existing beliefs or biases. For example, imagine that a person holds a belief that left-handed people are more creative than right-handed people. Whenever this person encounters a person that is both left-handed and creative, they place greater importance on this "evidence" supporting their already existing belief. This individual might even seek "proof" that further backs up this belief while discounting examples that do not support this idea.

Confirmation biases impact how people gather information, but they also influence how people interpret and recall information. For example, people who support or oppose a particular issue will not only seek information that supports their beliefs, they will also interpret news stories in a way that upholds their existing ideas and remember things in a way that also reinforces these attitudes.

A number of experiments conducted during the 1960s demonstrated that people have a tendency to seek information that confirms their existing beliefs. Unfortunately, this type of bias can prevent us from looking at situations objectively, can influence the decisions we make, and can lead to poor or faulty choices.

Kendra Cherry writing in VeryWell.com

September 12, 2017

expectation

September 12, 2017/ Stephen Goforth

Expectation is the root of all heartache. (unknown)

September 12, 2017

Articles of Interest - Sept 11

September 12, 2017/ Stephen Goforth

***TECHNOLOGY

New AI can work out whether you're gay or straight from a photograph The Guardian

What machines can tell from your face The Economist

Strong password strategy to protect against hackers The Washington Post

The NFL is putting data-collecting chips in all its footballs Fast Company

Identity Theft Feeds on Social Security Numbers Run Amok Bloomberg

The Password Game Survey Gizmo

Apple’s iOS 11 Will Make It Even Harder for Cops to Extract Your Data Wired

***SOCIAL MEDIA

News Use Across Social Media Platforms 2017 Journalism.org

***PRODUCING MEDIA

How Podcasting Became Hollywood's Latest Obsession VICE

***JOURNALISM

News Use Across Social Media Platforms 2017 Pew Research

What journalists can do better to cover the disability beat Columbia Journalism Review

Americans’ online news use is closing in on TV news use Pew Research

Washington Post’s Aggressive Video Journalism is Paying Off in Hurricane Coverage Editor and Publisher

***THE BUSINESS OF JOURNALISM

The New York Daily News bought by publisher Tronc for $1 CBS News

Turnaround at San Francisco Chronicle Shows Way for Legacy Newspapers Editor and Publisher

***FAKE NEWS

5 studies about fact-checking you may have missed last month Poynter

Trump backers’ alarming reliance on hoax and conspiracy theory websites, in 1 chart Washington Post

Facebook undermines its own effort to fight fake news Politico

How We Can Filter Fake News and Make Media More Trustworthy Singular Hub

How Russian & Alt-Right Twitter Accounts Worked Together to Skew the Narrative About Berkeley Arch Digital

A 25-Year-Old CEO Emailed Mark Cuban to Pitch His Anti-Fake News Startup for Investment — and It Worked TIME

***PERSONAL GROWTH

Why a squeegee used on 9/11 is in the Smithsonian Becoming (my blog)

***GRAMMAR

Is it elitist to call out Donald Trump’s typos and errors? Chronicle of Higher Ed

Why Can’t I Start a Sentence With a Numeral? Mother Jones

A Philosopher-Grammarian Gets Something Right Chronicle of Higher Ed

***LANGUAGE

A campaign to stop calling car collisions accidental Chronicle of Higher Ed

***LITERATURE

Rough Translation: How 'Anna Karenina' Saved A Somali Inmate's Life NPR

Publisher pulls book by Hillary Clinton's pastor, citing plagiarism CNN

The Forgotten Value of a Literature Course Chronicle of Higher Ed

***GENDER

DeVos Pushes New Approach on Title IX Enforcement Inside Higher Ed

The New Science of Sex and Gender Scientific American

***RACE & ETHNICITY ISSUES

Younger men play video games, but so do a diverse group of other Americans Pew Research

Study finds that students who deliver microaggressions are also likely to harbor racist attitudes Inside Higher Ed

Virtual Reality Project Captures Experience Of Crossing The Border NPR

Key facts about Asian Americans, a diverse and growing population Pew Research

***FREE SPEECH

Judge to Rule on White Nationalist's Speech at University New York Times

Discipline against Creston students is 'significant free speech issue,' says Drake Law professor Des Moines Register

Three Textbooks on Campus Free Speech Inside Higher Ed

Public Library staffer arrested for defending mans free speech rights is acquitted The Kansas City Star

Study Looks At How People Think About Free Speech NPR

***LEGAL ISSUES

PETA, Photographer Reach Settlement In ‘Monkey Selfie’ Case San Francisco

Amazon's 1-Click Patent Is About To Expire. What's The Big Deal? NPR

'We Shall Overcome’ Verse Not Under Copyright, Judge Rules New York Times

Hulk Hogan’s lawyer sets sights on new target: Jezebel New York Post

Lawsuit Against Trump Starts The Battle To Define 'Emolument' NPR

What if the majority of a book was copy and pasted from discussions on LinkedIn? Is it legal? Agile Scientific

No “Contract By Tweet” for Plaintiff Who Pitches Movie Idea via Social Media Technology & Marketing Law Blog

***BUSINESS

Americans work harder than any other country’s citizens: study New York Post

The Surprising Upsides To Getting Angry At Work Fast Company

***RELIGION

White Christians no longer majority in United States, especially California Sacramento Bee

White Christians decline in U.S., but still dominate Republican Party USA Today

Robert E. Lee Relative Who Denounced White Supremacy Resigns As Pastor Of N.C. Church after Bethany United Church of Christ moved to vote on his tenure there Chicago Tribune

God and the Gridiron Game Christianity Today

Why religion is not going away and science will not destroy it (opinion) Aeon

The Private Faith of Hillary Clinton New Yorker

More Americans now say they’re spiritual but not religious Pew Research

Christians And DACA NPR

***FILM

When Hollywood Went To Washington: The History Of Politics In Movies NPR

***SEXUAL HARASSMENT & ASSAULT

An explanation of Title IX and its Sexual Assault Protections

California, New York and other states have embraced Obama’s approach on campus sexual assault -- what happens if Trump reverses course? Inside Higher Ed

The Bad Science Behind Campus Response to Sexual Assault The Atlantic

Protecting Due Process in Sexual-Assault Cases on Campus Chronicle of Higher Ed

Education secretary’s speech on Title IX implied she could end many policies suggested by Obama administration but many policies on campus sexual assault investigations are enshrined in law Inside Higher Ed

***HEALTH

How Science Is Unlocking the Secrets of Addiction National Geographic

So Your Kitchen Sponge Is A Bacteria Hotbed. Here's What To Do NPR

Oxford University scientists gave African babies trial TB vaccine 'that did not work on monkeys' Telegraph

***SCIENCE

Could disruptive technologies also reform academia? eef

***PSYCHOLOGY

To put it bluntly, academic psychology’s public reputation seems to be in free fall Psychological Science

***HISTORY

What to Do When Nazis Are Obsessed With Your Field PS magazine

***RESEARCH

Peer Review in a World of “Alternative Facts” Scholarly Kitchen

How does one detect scientific fraud – but avoid false accusations? Journal of Clinical Epidemiology

To improve reproducibility, listen to graduate students and postdocs Naturejobs Blog

These Scientists Got To See Their Competitors’ Research Through Public Records Requests BuzzFeed

***HIGHER ED

Revoked admissions offer at Rochester raises questions about homeschooling transcripts Inside Higher Ed

Marchers protest 'Nashville Statement' at Moody Bible Institute Windy City

***TEACHING

Virtual desktops to give students access to popular professional software tools for the entirety of their academic career Chronicle of Higher Ed

**STUDENT MEDIA

Snapchat wants to get deeper into news, so it’s adding college newspapers to Discover Recode

What Title IX reform could mean for student journalists Student Press Law Center

***STUDENT LIFE

In a survey of more than 50 Universities the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education awarded 85 percent a D or an F for not ensuring students' due-process rights The FIRE

Faculty turns away student reporters at post-Charlottesville “all are welcome” discussion at university named after the man who wrote the First Amendment The Breeze

For Students Imperiled by Trump’s DACA Rollback, a Scramble for Answers Chronicle of Higher Ed

Millennials mostly watch TV after it’s aired Recode

The hardest test of freshman year? Survival The Washington Post

Reed College course lectures canceled after student protesters interrupt class to protest Eurocentrism Inside Higher Ed

***ACADEMIC LIFE

Professors Arrested at DACA Protest The Crimson (Harvard Student newspaper) The Crimson

September 11, 2017

Breaking Through The Wall

September 11, 2017/ Stephen Goforth

The squeegee of window washer Jan Demczur is in the Smithsonian. It got there because of his determination and willingness to use what was handy on the morning of September 11, 2001.

The Polish immigrant was riding in a north tower World Trade Center elevator when a hijacked plane hit the building. The elevator came to a stop on the 50th floor. That's when Demczur and other stranded workers preyed open the door, revealing a solid wall.

Rather than give up, Demczur used his brass squeegee handle to hack away at it. He eventually broke through the wall and lead the group to safety just moments before the tower fell.

Got a wall to break through in your life? There's probably a tool at your disposal that will deserve a place in the Smithsonian if you are willing to work with what you've got and refuse to give up.

Stephen Goforth

September 10, 2017

the tuition

September 10, 2017/ Stephen Goforth

Failure is the tuition you pay for success. - Walter Brunell

September 10, 2017

Experience

September 10, 2017/ Stephen Goforth

Experience teaches only the teachable. - Aldous Huxley

September 08, 2017

Using Peer Pressure to our advantage

September 08, 2017/ Stephen Goforth

In a 1994 Harvard study that examined people who had radically changed their lives, for instance, researchers found that some people had remade their habits after a personal tragedy, such as a divorce or a life-threatening illness. Others changed after they saw a friend go through something awful... Just as frequently, however, there was no tragedy that preceded people's transformations. Rather, they changed because they were embedded in social groups that made change easier… When people join groups where change seems possible, the potential for that change to occur becomes more real.

Charles Duhigg, The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business

September 04, 2017

articles of interest - Sept. 4, 2017

September 04, 2017/ Stephen Goforth

***JOURNALISM

The Guardian Sets Up a Nonprofit to Support Its Journalism New York Times

The Newseum Deserves to Die Politico

Quartz created a bot that can break news — and wants to help other news orgs develop their own Harvard’s Nieman Lab

After a CNN interviewee erupts in anger, disaster reporting standards come into focus Washington Post

Court rules that MSU can’t sue ESPN for requesting open records Student Press Law Center

How a 171-year-old news agency is the hidden mainstay of news on Facebook The Drum

***FAKE NEWS

Researchers teach AI neural network to write fake reviews, with implications for fake news Business Insider

When it comes to the academic study of fake news, “bullshit receptivity” is a thing Nieman Journalism Lab

Why fact-checking can’t stop Trump’s lies Vox

Fact-Check That Viral Image in Two Clicks Life Hacker

There’s a long list of old-fashioned parallels to today’s fake news. Here’s one that’s actually helpful Harvard’s Nieman Lab

Fake news is nothing new: This photo hoax went viral a century ago Salon

***TECHNOLOGY

Google-Funded Think Tank Fires Scholar Who Criticized Tech Giant NPR

'Smart' Campuses Invest in the Internet of Things Campus Technology

Doubts raised on key points of Nature paper on CRISPR gene editing of human embryos The Niche

Scientists Can Predict How You Look Using Only Your Anonymous DNA KPBS

***BIG DATA & STATISTICS

Using recurrent neural networks to create fake yelp reviews-and how to fight it Business Insider

The first quantum-cryptographic satellite network will be Chinese Economist

Intel unveils tiny chip to run deep Neural Networks at high speed and low power while retaining accuracy Alphr

How Walmart is using Machine Learning, AI, IoT and Big Data to boost retail performance Forbes

Google researcher comes up with new technology to bring neural networks to mobile devices Infoq

***SOCIAL MEDIA

Facebook Prepares To Launch New Video Streaming Service NPR

How media companies are creating episodic series for Instagram Stories Marketing Land

***INTERNET

711 million email addresses ensnared in "largest" spambot ZDNet

How to Diagnose Pages that Rank in One Geography But Not Another Moz

***PERSONAL GROWTH

To Have Good Ideas, Remember to Get Bored Life Hacker

Proof that I was a worthless piece of Garbage (Jenni Berrett) Becoming (my blog)

How Your Brain Tricks You Into Thinking Magic Is Real Life Hacker

***CRITICAL THINKING

Believing widely doubted conspiracy theories satisfies some people’s need to feel special Research Digest

Adam Ruins Everything goes after itself College Humor

***LANGUAGE

This is How Canada Talks The 10 and 3

How to Lose an Accent, According to a Dialect Coach Life Hacker

***LITERATURE

Tolkien's Plant Passion Moves Botantist To Create Guide To Middle Earth NPR

***GENDER

Why Female Students Leave STEM Inside Higher Ed

***RACE & ETHNICITY ISSUES

Teaching White Students Showed Me The Difference Between Power and Privilege BuzzFeed News

Is Doxxing the Right Way to Fight the “Alt-Right?” Jstor

***FREE SPEECH

First Amendment Protects Cinema's Right to Show Unicorn Masturbation Scene While Serving Alcohol, Says Judge Reason

The Most Shortsighted Attack on Free Speech in Modern U.S. History The Atlantic

***LEGAL ISSUES

Dr. Phil Video Leads to Novel Copyright Decision Involving Woman Alleging False Imprisonment Hollywood Reporter

H3H3 Wins Summary Judgment on Fair Use YouTube Lawsuit Plagiarism Today

Charlotte School of Law bilked $285 million from taxpayers, former faculty member says Charlotte Observer

Google Researchers Create Algorithm to Remove Image Watermarks Plagiarism Today

Prediction: It's CNN Not the N.Y. Times Headed to Supreme Court in Defamation Battle Hollywood Reporter

***ART & DESIGN

DeviantArt and Copyright issues Plagiarism Today

A Short Documentary on Artist Jeff Koons Open Culture

***MUSIC

The secret rhythm in Radiohead’s “Videotape” Vox

***BUSINESS

Market power and competition explain every problem in the US economy, new research argues Quartz

Silicon Valley employees celebrate their own exploitation New York Times

***RADIO

Traditional Radio Faces a Grim Future, New Study Says Variety

Brown University radio station sold to K-LOVE for $5.63 million Providence Journal

National Association of Broadcasters, Nielsen Respond to Study Predicting Terrestrial Radio’s Downfall Variety

***JOBS & INTERNSHIPS

What to Say When an Interviewer Wants You to Talk About Yourself Life Hacker

***HEALTH

Why Giving Birth Is Safer In Britain Than In The US Digg

Utah hospital nurse roughed up and arrested for doing her job Washington Post

Microscopic lasers may stop tumours spreading around the body: How to blow cancer cells up from the inside Economist

***SCIENCE

Physicists Want to Rebuild Quantum Theory From Scratch Wired

***PSYCHOLOGY

Psychology offers a simple rule to consider before you tell someone your woes Quartz

Could a Videogame Strengthen Your Aging Brain? Wired

***PHILOSOPHY

Wittgenstein on Whether Speech Is Violence Jstor

***HIGHER ED

The Myth of American Universities as Inequality-Fighters The Atlantic

Most Colleges Will Change Overtime Policies Despite Judge’s Blocking of New Rule Chronicle of Higher Ed

Almost 40 percent of Texas's flagship state university's undergraduates are from counties declared disaster areas Washington Post

***HUMANITIES /STEM

Diverging Trends in Completions of Advanced Humanities Degrees American Academy of Arts and Sciences

***TEACHING

Are Students Doing Their Own Work in Online Classes? Chronicle of Higher Ed

As Coding Boot Camps Close, the Field Faces a Reality Check New York Times

***SEXUAL HARASSMENT & ASSAULT

A College Seminar Tells Students to Masturbate to Prevent Sexual Assault Cosmopolitan

***ACADEMIC LIFE

Under Fire, These Professors Were Criticized by Their Colleges Chronicle of Higher Ed

Professor Fired for Blaming Harvey on Texas Voting GOP NBC News

Fill Out This Bingo Card During Your First Faculty Meeting of the Year Chronicle of Higher Ed

If professors can be fired for comments that show hostility toward certain groups, then colleges and universities should stop claiming that they respect academic freedom (opinion) Washington Post

Why I’m Leaving the Political Science Association (opinion) Minding the Campus

Faculty Members Organize to Fight ‘Fascist’ Interlopers on Campuses Chronicle of Higher Ed

***STUDENT MEDIA

Let’s Talk about cocks (opinion) Journo Terrorist

***STUDENT LIFE

The Biggest Misconception About Today’s College Students New York Times

Professors at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton say their advice to incoming freshmen can be 'distilled to 3 words' Business Insider

Why You Should Read That Whole Text Book Right Now Wired

College Students evacuated after being stranded by Hurricane Harvey Washington Post

A new Stanford study suggests first-year students can judge who will help them have fun and who can be a shoulder to cry on Inside Higher Ed

A Few Telling Freshman Trends New York Times

***RELIGION

Spicer gets his audience with the pope Politico

The Joel Osteen Fiasco Says A Lot About American Christianity (opinion) BuzzFeed News

The Cheap Prosperity Gospel of Trump and Osteen (opinion) associate professor of religious studies) New York Times

Evangelicals to Trump: Don’t Deport Our Next Generation of Church Leaders Christianity Today

***RELIGION: THE NASHVILLE STATEMENT

More than 150 evangelical religious leaders sign 'Christian manifesto' on human sexuality USA Today

Nashville's mayor is denouncing a statement against same-sex marriage that evangelical leaders named after the city Huron Daily Tribune

I signed the Nashville Statement. It’s an expression of love for same-sex attracted people (opinion) Washington Post

The ugly ingratitude of the 'Nashville Statement' (opinion) Patheos

Why even conservative evangelicals are unhappy with the anti-LGBT Nashville Statement Washington Post

September 04, 2017

Jenni Berrett: Proof that I was a worthless piece of Garbage

September 04, 2017/ Stephen Goforth

I spend days at a time in bed, staring at the ceiling and thinking of all the things I could be doing but can’t because I know I would do them imperfectly. I lose countless hours to inner monologues filled with self-hatred and all-or-nothing thinking. I don’t read anything, instead preferring to slowly crush myself with the existential weight of knowing that I will never be able to Read All The Things.

For a very long time, I thought that I did this because I was lazy. I figured that if I just worked a little harder, tried a little more, then I would be able to accomplish the things I set out to do. Failing to do them was a failure of my character. It was because I was a bad person, or at least bad at being a person.

I told myself that I had to get my act together; I had to do all of these things so that I could prove I wasn’t the worthless piece of garbage I thought I was. When I inevitably cracked under that pressure, I took it as proof that I was a worthless piece of garbage.

If all of this sounds repetitive, that’s because it is. It’s a vicious, repetitive, monotonous cycle. It moves at breakneck speed, but also not at all. Experiencing it is the most damning case against perfectionism I have ever come across. Expecting perfection only leaves you with two options: do everything right on the very first try, or don’t even bother. Which is actually only one option, since 9 times out of 10, human beings don't do things right on the first try.

Jenni Berrett writing in Ravishly

September 03, 2017

What on earth is He up to?

September 03, 2017/ Stephen Goforth

Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of — throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.

CS Lewis, Mere Christianity

Becoming

ideas that challenge / comfort / inspire

articles of interest - Oct 2

Social Proof

articles of interest - Sept. 25

the forest would be silent

forget

articles of interest - Sept 18

An Easy Fix

The Backfire Effect

the opportunity

failure

Confirmation Bias

expectation

Articles of Interest - Sept 11

Breaking Through The Wall

the tuition

Experience

Using Peer Pressure to our advantage

articles of interest - Sept. 4, 2017

Jenni Berrett: Proof that I was a worthless piece of Garbage

What on earth is He up to?

Goforth Solutions, LLC