In 1770 a chess-playing robot, built by a Hungarian inventor, caused a sensation across Europe. The Mechanical Turk was capable of beating even the best players at chess.

It eventually transpired that there was a human chess player cleverly concealed in its innards. The apparently intelligent machine depended on a person hidden inside.

It turns out that something very similar is happening today. Just like the Turk, modern artificial-intelligence (AI) systems rely on help from unseen humans.

Pretty much everything you do online creates a trail of data that can be used for making systems smarter. As Google, Facebook and others operate their enormous smart machines, we are all helping to power them. A clockwork chess robot from the 1770s thus foreshadowed both the modern debate about artificial intelligence – and a key aspect of making the technology work. The internet is a giant Mechanical Turk: whether we know it or not, we have all become the people inside the machine

Tom Standage writing in 1843 Magazine

January 06, 2019

heroic imagination

January 06, 2019/ Stephen Goforth

The very same situations that inflame the hostile imagination in some people, making them villains, can also instill the heroic imagination in other people, prompting them to perform heroic deeds. -Philip Zimbardo

January 04, 2019

Why We All Take the Same Travel Photos

January 04, 2019/ Stephen Goforth

I knew it was silly to join the crowd of tourists clicking away at the Mona Lisa when I visited the Louvre a couple years ago—geotagging has made it all too clear how unoriginal those photos are. But I did it anyway, elbowing through a sea of smartphones and selfie sticks for a tourist-free shot at the front. The visit just didn’t feel complete without it. But why?

Photographing something is a way of possessing it—at least, that's what the critic Susan Sontag argued in her 1977 classic, On Photography. “To collect photographs is to collect the world," she wrote. It confirms your connection to places and objects once distant and remote, making the world slightly smaller and less alienating.

Ironically, though, "collecting the world" might mean also losing it. “A way of certifying experience, taking photographs is also a way of refusing it—by limiting experience to a search for the photogenic, by converting experience into an image, a souvenir,” Sontag wrote.

Laura Mallonee writing in Wired

January 03, 2019

through the shadows

January 03, 2019/ Stephen Goforth

You can only come to the morning through the shadows. -J.R.R. Tolkien (born Jan. 3, 1892)

January 02, 2019

A Compass

January 02, 2019/ Stephen Goforth

Use a compass instead of a clock. It’s more important what direction you are going than how quickly you get there.

January 01, 2019

Articles of Interest - Dec 31

January 01, 2019/ Stephen Goforth

***2019 PREDICTIONS

Predictions for Journalism in 2019 Harvard’s Nieman Lab

PR predictions for 2019: 11 industry pros weigh in MuckRack

The 9 big design trends of 2019 Fast Company

Search Batten Down the Hatches for 2019 – A Media Storm Is Coming The Wrap

Seven New Year’s resolutions for Big Tech in 2019 MIT Technology Review

Why 2019 might finally bring a national privacy law for the US Yahoo Finance

***TECHNOLOGY

6 of the most amazing things that were 3D-printed in 2018 MIT Technology Review

The Best Technology Guides of 2018 Life Hacker

The 10 most intriguing inventions of 2018 MIT Technology Review

The Smartest Tech Products of 2018 Tech News World

***BIG DATA & AI

A data scientist has figured out the main character in 'Friends' Comic Sands

Hacker news book suggestions Toward Data Science

What’s frustrating about machine learning is that the algorithms can’t tell us why they work—so we don’t know if they can be trusted New York Times

Why Python is the real programming language of data science, not R Tech Republic

There are no killer robots yet—but regulators must respond to AI in 2019—no need to invent a whole new set of AI rules. Better to simply adapt and reinforce existing ones Economist

Why Is AI-Generated Music Still so Bad? MotherBoard

The Year in Math and Computer Science Quanta Magazine

***SOCIAL MEDIA

The Government Has an Instagram Problem Social media connects us to our officials, but much of what they say will be lost to history Medium

Death by selfie 1843 Magazine

How to Fix Your Facebook News Feed Wired

Instagram got rid of the scrolling feed for some users and people freaked out Recode

10 New Year's resolutions that will make your online life a little better Mashable

***PRIVACY & SECURITY

Your data was probably stolen in cyberattack in 2018 – and you should care USA Today

Use the Holidays to Explain Online Privacy and Security Settings to Your Family Life Hacker

Data Privacy Scandals and Public Policy Picking Up Speed: 2018 in Review Electronic Frontier Foundation

***THE BUSINESS OF MEDIA

Merger of two glossy magazine printers adds to media upheaval New York Post

We Detox from Chartbeat Harvard’s Nieman Lab

***JOURNALISM

Confessions of a journalism contest judge (opinion) Journo Terrorist

The Gap Between Journalism and Research is too Wide Harvard’s Nieman Lab

My advice for aspiring explainer journalists Vox

Mobile Alerts Considered Standalone Platform In Newsrooms Media Post

***THE BUSINESS OF JOURNALISM

18 lessons for the news business from 2018 Harvard’s Nieman Lab

Cyberattack Prevents Distribution Of Major U.S. Newspapers Deadline

Newsrooms Need to Build Trust with their Journalists not just with the Audience Harvard’s Nieman Lab

***FAKE NEWS

How Much of the Internet Is Fake? New York Magazine

These Are 50 Of The Biggest Fake News Hits On Facebook In 2018 BuzzFeed News

‘Fake news’ and school uniforms: Our most popular research roundups in 2018 Journalists Resource

I’ve reported on misinformation for more than a year: Here’s what I’ve learned Poynter

Fake news is everywhere: Even in places that were once legitimate BigThink

(Mis)informed podcast: Is fact-checking the best way to fight misinformation? Poynter

Is this photo real? AI gets better at faking images Wired

***PERSONAL GROWTH

What Makes People Susceptible to Fake News Becoming (my blog)

Just Admit It, You’re in a Bad Mood The Cut

People adopt made-up social rules to be part of a group Ars Technica

An Anthropologist Investigates How We Think About How We Think New Yorker

The Effect Of Sleep On Happiness Tracking Happiness

Five Easy Ways To Boost Your Mental Health In 2019 Forbes

***WRITING & READING

The best Facts I learned from Books in 2018 New Yorker

Unplugged: what I learned by logging off and reading 12 books in a week The Guardian

***LANGUAGE

It’s time to put Woke to Sleep (opinion) NPR

University wants to ‘banish’ Trump’s favorite word in 2019 Mashable

***POETRY

Poetry Twitter Erupts over a Plagiarist in Their Midst Vulture

10 Poets On Their Favorite Poetry Collections Of 2018 BuzzFeed News

***GENDER

What happens to religious professionals when they stop believing in God Vice

Nearly a quarter of Americans support gender equality at work or at home, but not both Chicago Tribune

***RACE & ETHNICITY ISSUES

A millionaire paid Jews to move to a small town in Alabama: Now, a couple struggle with their choice Washington Post

911 calls on black people were one of 2018’s biggest stories about race Vox

***LEGAL ISSUES

Real Estate Appraisals and Copyrighting Facts Technology & Marketing Law Blog

Athletes Don’t Own Their Tattoos and That’s a Problem for Video Game Developers New York Times

15 of Our Favorite Long(er)reads of 2018 The Fashion Law Blog

Best and Worst Internet Laws Technology & Marketing Law Blog

***OF INTEREST TO EVANGELICALS

Religion Considered Important to 72% of Americans Gallup

A Utah man gave his mother a portrait of Obi-Wan Kenobi for Christmas and she hung it on her wall thinking it was Jesus This is Insider

What happens to religious professionals when they stop believing in God Vice

The Varieties of American Evangelicalism Center for Religion and Civic Culture

Facebook temporarily banned evangelist Franklin Graham from site The Hill

***GOOD NEWS

Dad books 6 flights on Christmas Eve to spend time with flight attendant daughter USA Today

Child uses Boy Scout skills to save mom's life San Diego Reader

Mollie Tibbetts' mother listened as Trump used her slain daughter to rail against illegal immigration: Then she took a different path The Washington Post

Teachers operate school food pantries twice a week Fox 13

Social Worker Led Frugal Life To Leave Nearly $11 Million To Children's Charities NPR

***ART & DESIGN

22 artists transform unsightly grain silo into the world's largest outdoor mural (video) You Tube

Of the trillion photos taken in 2018, which were the most memorable? The Conversation

***MUSIC

A rocker’s guide to management A look at the friendship and business sides of big rock bands 1843 Magazine

Why Is Everyone Rapping Offbeat? (video) YouTube

***FILM

Best Movies 2018: 'A Star Is Born' to Fill the 'Star Wars' Void Wired

***CRIME

When the Calendar Requires the Release of Insanity Defendants in Oregon, Harm Often Follows ProPublica

Convicted of Murder in Texas, Declared Innocent Thanks to ‘Junk Science’ Review Texas Monthly

We mapped 150,000 shootings. Here’s what we found The Trace

New Calif. Law Requires Documents On Police Shootings Be Made Public NPR

***STUDENT LIFE

Millennials Are Keeping Family Holiday Cards Alive The Atlantic

He Drew His School Mascot — and ICE Labeled Him a Gang Member ProPublica

***JOBS

Morning show producer KFMB Radio, San Diego

Growth and Strategy Intern (Spring 2019), VICE Media, Beverly Hills

It's Time to Rethink How You Find a Mentor at Work Glamour

***INTERNSHIPS/PROGRAMS

Internship (Summer 2019) San Diego Padres

Summer Journalism Program Princeton

Business journalism diversity program Bloomberg-UNC-Berkeley

Podcast internship (Remote or Los Angeles) Neon Hum Media

***BORDER STORIES

Disturbing Video Shows Immigrant Children Being Slapped, Pushed, And Dragged In Arizona Detention Facility BuzzFeed News

A Woman Facing Deportation Says She Was Denied Justice Because She Speaks An Indigenous Language BuzzFeed News

***BUSINESS & FINANCE

If You’re Over 50, Chances Are the Decision to Leave your Job will Not be Your Own ProPublica

The Likelihood Of You Becoming A Millionaire Daily Infographic

***HEALTH

Elevated iron is at the center of a web of disease stretching from cancer to diabetes Nautil.us

Could Exercising In Frigid Temperatures Make Us Healthier? NPR

***PARENTING

Want to raise a child genius? A study running for 45 years has suggestions BigThink

Author Of 'The New Childhood' Advises Parents: Don't Panic About Screen Time NPR

The Way American Parents Think About Chores Is Bizarre The Atlantic

***SCIENCE

More science than you think is retracted. Even more should be (opinion) Washington Post

10 science stories in 2018 that made us go, “Whoa, that’s awesome” Vox

The Real Fake News: Top Scientific Retractions of 2018 Live Science

***NEUROSCIENCE

This Is Your Brain on Hate Researchers are studying how extreme ideology may rewire people Vice

The Must-Read Brain Books Of 2018 Forbes

***PRODUCTIVITY

How I got my attention back Wired

Why People Wait 10 Days to Do Something That Takes 10 Minutes: Chores are the worst The Atlantic

***RESEARCH

Taking a Closer Look at the Legal Aspects of Peer Review and Predatory Journals Drug & Device Law Blog

Dubious and Fraudulent Activities in Sports Nutrition Journal Human Kinetics

The Retraction Watch Database has launched: Here’s what you need to know Ahrecs

***HIGHER ED

Temple Will Pay $5.5M to Settle Suits Over False Rankings Data Inside Higher Ed

Ten education stories we’ll be reading in 2019 AEI

***TEACHING

Wolfram Alpha Is Making It Extremely Easy for Students to Cheat Wired

***ACADEMIC LIFE

Former student charged with threatening Mercer professor WRDW

December 31, 2018

What Makes People Susceptible to Fake News

December 31, 2018/ Stephen Goforth

Susceptibility to fake news is driven more by lazy thinking than by partisan bias. Which on one hand sounds—let's be honest—pretty bad. But it also implies that getting people to be more discerning isn't a lost cause. Changing people's ideologies, which are closely bound to their sense of identity and self, is notoriously difficult. Getting people to think more critically about what they're reading could be a lot easier, by comparison.

Then again, maybe not.

Anyone who has sat and stared vacantly at their phone while thumb-thumb-thumbing to refresh their Twitter feed, or closed out of Instagram only to re-open it reflexively, has experienced firsthand what it means to browse in such a brain-dead, ouroboric state. Default settings like push notifications, autoplaying videos, algorithmic news feeds—they all cater to humans' inclination to consume things passively instead of actively, to be swept up by momentum rather than resist it.

This isn't baseless philosophizing; most folks just tend not to use social media to engage critically with whatever news, video, or sound bite is flying past. As one recent study shows, most people browse Twitter and Facebook to unwind and defrag—hardly the mindset you want to adopt when engaging in cognitively demanding tasks.

David Rand—a behavioral scientist at MIT—says he has experiments in the works that investigate whether nudging people to think about the concept of accuracy can make them more discerning about what they believe and share. In the meantime, he suggests confronting fake news espoused by other people not necessarily by lambasting it as fake, but by casually bringing up the notion of truthfulness in a non-political context. You know: just planting the seed. It won't be enough to turn the tide of misinformation. But if our susceptibility to fake news really does boil down to intellectual laziness, it could make for a good start.

Robbie Gonzalez writing in Wired Magazine

December 28, 2018

Grappling for Knowledge

December 28, 2018/ Stephen Goforth

According to a 1995 study, a sample of Japanese eighth graders spent 44 percent of their class time inventing, thinking, and actively struggling with underlying concepts. The study’s sample of American students, on the other hand, spend less than one percent of their time in that state.

“The Japanese want their kids to struggle,” said Jim Stigler, the UCLA professor who oversaw the study and who co-wrote The Teaching Gapwith James Hiebert. “Sometimes the (Japanese) teacher will purposely give the wrong answer so the kids can grapple with the theory. American teachers, though, worked like waiters. Whenever there was a struggle, they wanted to move past it, make sure the class kept gliding along. But you don't learn by gliding.”

Daniel Coyle, The Talent Code

December 27, 2018

Until you make peace with who you are, you’ll never be content with what you have. -Doris Mortman

December 27, 2018/ Stephen Goforth

December 26, 2018

Unstirred waters lead to stagnation, and stagnation can't support life. -Ron Martoia

December 26, 2018/ Stephen Goforth

December 24, 2018

Articles of Interest - Dec 24

December 24, 2018/ Stephen Goforth

***TECHNOLOGY

Bose is set to Release Augmented Reality Audio Sunglasses with built-in speakers built-in and a microphone PC Magazine

It will soon be possible to send a satellite to repair another Or to destroy it Economist

***BIG DATA & QUANTUM TECH

The role of big data in science's reproducibility crisis: invalid statistical analyses that are from data-driven hypotheses PS Mag

$1.2 billon law to boost US quantum tech MIT Tech Review

Quantum computers pose a security threat that we’re still totally unprepared for MIT Tech Review

In what sense is quantum computing a science? Medium

***SOCIAL MEDIA

Rising Instagram Stars Are Posting Fake Sponsored Content The Atlantic

'Happier without Facebook': Users who deleted the social network say they're not looking back USA Today

***PRIVACY & SECURITY

DC slaps Facebook with latest suit targeting privacy lapses Associated Press

Anonymous Hacker Breaks Into A Personal Security System To Prove It's Possible NPR

Man sues feds after being detained for refusing to unlock his phone at airport Arstechnica

Facebook doesn’t need to sell your data. It has been giving it away free for years Recode

***PRODUCING MEDIA

Jungle Creations’ Jamie Bolding: Content is King, ‘Now More than Ever’ Story Hunter

5 Ways to Make Your Website Gen-Z Friendlier Tech News World

***THE BUSINESS OF MEDIA

The biggest brand in digital media has lost much of its lustre Economist

Media year in review: All the big changes from 2018 CNN

***JOURNALISM

Trust in the media is starting to make a comeback Axios

The most engaging stories of 2018 Chartbeat

The top 10 tools for journalism in 2018 Poynter

The U.S. Has Been Named as One of the Deadliest Places in the World for Journalists TIME

The funny, the weird and the serious: 33 media corrections from 2018 Poynter

‘Fake news’ and school uniforms: Our most popular research roundups in 2018 Journalists Resource

Der Spiegel to Press Charges Against Reporter Who Made Up Articles New York Times

Towards a rethinking of journalism on social media Harvard’s Nieman Lab

***THE BUSINESS OF JOURNALISM

Telemundo Plans English-Language Newscast For YouTube Media Post

The numbers are in: Local news isn't dying if you look to TV Radio Television Digital News Association

***FAKE NEWS

How to recognize fake AI-generated images Medium

Who, what, why, where? Verification of online data Exposing the Invisible

What psychology experiments tell you about why people deny facts Economist

Reporter For German Magazine Falsified Articles, Including One About Trump Supporters NPR

Facebook’s anti-misinformation boss talks about the future of the company’s fact-checking program Poynter

Facebook's foot-dragging responses deepen its trust crisis Axios

***PERSONAL GROWTH

She Wrapped Him in Swaddling Clothes Becoming (my blog)

Nobel Prize-winning psychologist says most people don’t really want to be happy Quartz

***GRAMMAR

Check yourself for these five common grammatical mistakes Fast Company

***LANGUAGE

9 Books For People Who Love Language, Words, And Grammar BuzzFeed News

Here's how many people in each state speak a language other than English at home Business Insider

***LITERATURE

Alice Walker and David Icke: the New York Times By the Book feature controversy Slate

What Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice Teaches Readers The Atlantic

***GENDER

Twitter Abuse Toward Women Is Rampant, Amnesty Report Says Wired

'You freak me out': Assistant principal allegedly harassed trans student NBC News

***FREE SPEECH

Texas Makes Public Colleges Forbid Contractors to Boycott Israel: A Lawsuit Says That Violates the First Amendment Chronicle of Higher Ed

Big Wins for Privacy and Free Speech: 2018 in Review Electronic Frontier Foundation

***LEGAL ISSUES

BuzzFeed wins defamation suit over dossier publication CNN

For the First Time in More Than 20 Years, Copyrighted Works Will Enter the Public Domain Smithsonian Magazine

How software code could help you grapple with the legal code Wired

Candy Cane, Carlton, and The Floss: Are These Dances Protected by Copyright? 1709 Blog

***RELIGION

A Christmas Dragon Nativity Scene Riles the Neighbors CityLab

W.Va. mom says her daughter was bullied after they balked at Bible classes in public school NBC News

For Evangelicals, A Year Of Reckoning On Sexual Sin And Support For Donald Trump NPR

***RELIGION OUTSIDE THE U.S.

5 facts about Catholics in Europe Pew Research Center

Religious Rift Grows Between Ukraine And Russia NPR

A Nun In India Accuses A Bishop Of Rape, And Divides The Country's Christians NPR

18 international charities including World Vision Forced Out of Pakistan After 13 Years Christianity Today

***GOOD NEWS

Retiree has driven 64,000 miles helping low-income students get to college Telegram

Homeless Man Turns In $17,000 He Found in a Bag Outside Food Bank Inside Edition

Bowling partners not bothered by age gap of almost a century Australian Broadcasting Corporation

This toy factory is run by volunteers who give away all the toys for free The Washington Post

Man gives away frequent flyer miles to strangers for holidays USA Today

With school delayed due to a storm, driver buys breakfast for every kid on his bus The Week

***ART & DESIGN

22 artists transform grain silo into the world's largest outdoor mural The Week

Stendhal syndrome: can art really be so beautiful it makes you ill? The Guardian

Accessibility guidelines for UX Designers UX Collective

***FILM

Movies That Bombed So Hard They Bankrupted Studios (video) YouTube

Movies With Female Leads Consistently Outperform Movies With Male Leads, Study Finds CBS News

***POLITICS

Secret Experiment in Alabama Senate Race Imitated Russian Tactics New York Times

The Political Insiders’ Guide to 2019 Politico

***SEXUAL HARASSMENT & ASSAULT

I worked at CBS. I didn’t want to be sexually harassed: I was fired Boston Globe

More than 500 priests accused of sexual abuse not yet publicly identified by Catholic Church Chicago Tribune

***CRIME

The story of the mob’s man in Hollywood Economist

Using Statistics to Grapple With Crime Undark

***SOCIAL ISSUES

A visual journey through addiction New York Times

Two new movies reveal the strengths and weaknesses of the film industry's attempts to tackle America's addiction crisis New Republic

The 18 most striking trends from 2018 Pew Research Center

'Sesame Street' Addresses Issue of Homelessness With New Muppet, Lily NPR

***BUSINESS & FINANCE

The Best Budgeting Apps For Finally Getting Your Expenses in Check Popular Mechanics

The mysterious government organization that pops up at moments of financial crisis Quartz

***ENVIRONMENT

The White House rolls back a rule on polluting wetlands Economist

New houseplant can clean your home's air Science Daily

***HEALTH

How Hits To The Head Are Transferred To The Brain NPR

Can Parkour Teach Older People to Fall Better? CityLab

Gut bacteria may offer a treatment for autism: A common probiotic holds the key Economist

If You Feel Thankful, Write It Down. It's Good For Your Health NPR

***SCIENCE

The dean of UCLA Law explains the uncertain future of forensic science The Verge

The 10 Weirdest Science Stories of 2018 Live Science

***PSYCHOLOGY

Kanye West and the Dangers of Going off Psychiatric Meds The Atlantic

Illinois Regulators Are Investigating a Psychiatrist Whose Research With Children Was Marred by Misconduct Propublica

***NEUROSCIENCE

Altering Memories to Treat Addiction Undark

Your brain on art: neuroscientists define the aesthetic experience Missouri S&T

***PHILOSOPHY

6 essential books on existentialist philosophy Big Think

If universities sacrifice philosophy on the altar of profit, what’s next? The Guardian

***HISTORY

Mapping the making of America An imaginative history of the country shows what has and hasn’t changed Economist

Lessons from the fall of a great republic: Unworthy politicians, indulgent citizens and inequality did for Rome Economist

***RESEARCH

Inside the flawed world of medical publishing that allowed a lie in a paper to pollute the scientific record The Star

Journal removes poop drawing with Donald Trump's face — but offers no explanation Canadian Broadcast Company

Preying On The Predatory Journals: A Case Study Center for Inquiry

Is it time to start using the emoji in biomedical literature? BMJ

More Chinese Censorship of International Journals Inside Higher Ed

A recent study on ego depletion can’t confirm an old one. Who is right? Probably everyone Science News

What can be done about research misconduct, scandals and spins? AMJ Med

How (as an editor) I choose lists of reviewers Scientist Sees Squirrel

***RESEARCH AUTHORSHIP

More than half of over 1,000 social science journals “do not have an established authorship definition Springer

Assigning authorship for research papers can be tricky: These approaches can help Science Mag

Definition of authorship in social science journals Springer

***HIGHER ED

Tales Of Rural Students In College NPR

Blockchain Could Rewire Higher Ed. But Should It? Ed Surge

***CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS

Tenured Theology professor dismissed by Southwest Baptist Bolivar Herald

The irony of a Southern Baptist seminary’s report on slavery and racism (opinion) Baptist News Global

***TEACHING

FBI Tactics Help Address Contract Cheating: Papers purchased from essay mills are technically original work and may not be flagged by plagiarism checkers BBC

***STUDENT MEDIA

Students at Missouri Strt Petition to Keep student media TV space Change.org

***STUDENT LIFE

The Rise of Anxiety Baking This year has been rough. Make some cookies The Atlantic

With most student news organizations in financial jeopardy, can paying staff be a priority? Student Press Law Center

A College Student Was Told To Remove A "Fuck Nazis" Sign Because It Wasn't "Inclusive" BuzzFeed News

Millennials Strike Again: This Time We Are Killing Cash And 'Merry Christmas' NPR

December 24, 2018

She Wrapped Him in Swaddling Clothes

December 24, 2018/ Stephen Goforth

And she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them (Luke 2:7 NIV)

“She wrapped him in cloths.” Literally, he was wrapped in strips of cloth to kept him warm. The old King James translation uses the memorable phrase “swaddling clothes.” It’s still practiced in some countries today.

Did he cry? Do you think he cried? When you think of the manger and the child, do you imagine him crying?

Mary put diapers on God.

The mention of a manger is where we get the idea he was born in a stable. Often, stables were caves, with feeding troughs for animals.. mangers. It was probably dark and dirty. This is not the way the messiah was expected to appear. How often our expectations and God’s reality are not in sync. How often he appears in unexpected places.

Stephen Goforth

December 22, 2018

Treasure the love you receive above all. It will survive long after your good health has vanished. -Og Mandino

December 22, 2018/ Stephen Goforth

December 21, 2018

Regretting your Choices

December 21, 2018/ Stephen Goforth

The choices we make are statements to the world about who we are. When all you could do was buy Lee’s or Levi’s, the jeans you bought were not a statement to the world about who you are because there wasn’t enough variety in the jeans you bought to capture the variety of human selves. When there are 2,000 kinds of jeans, or 20,000 kinds of jeans, well, now all of a sudden it is a statement to the world about who you are because there’s so much variety out there. This is true of jeans. It’s true of drinks. It’s true of music videos. It’s true of movies. That makes even trivial decisions seem important, and when that happens, people want the best. We’ve got a bunch of studies that show that large choice sets induce people to regard the choices they make as statements about the self, and that, in turn, induces them to raise their standards.If there are 200, and you buy a pair of jeans that don’t fit you as well as you hoped, now it’s hard to avoid blaming yourself. The only way to avoid regretting a decision is not making it, so I think a lot of the reason people don’t pull the trigger is that they’re so worried that when they do pull the trigger, they’ll regret a choice they made.

Barry Schwartz quoted in Vox

December 20, 2018

This is a good sign, having a broken heart. It means we have tried for something. -Elizabeth Gilbert

December 20, 2018/ Stephen Goforth

December 19, 2018

Information overload is nothing new

December 19, 2018/ Stephen Goforth

The ever-expanding array of digital material can leave you feeling overwhelmed, constantly interrupted, unable to concentrate or worried that you are missing out or falling behind. No wonder some people are quitting social media, observing “digital sabbaths” when they unplug from the internet for a day, or buying old-fashioned mobile phones in an effort to avoid being swamped.

This phenomenon may seem quintessentially modern, but it dates back centuries, as Ann Blair of Harvard University observes in “Too Much to Know”, a history of information overload. Half a millennium ago, the printing press was to blame. “Is there anywhere on Earth exempt from these swarms of new books?” moaned Erasmus in 1525. New titles were appearing in such abundance, thousands every year. How could anyone figure out which ones were worth reading? Overwhelmed scholars across Europe worried that good ideas were being lost amid the deluge.

Figuring out book reviews, indexes and the rest took several centuries, so we shouldn’t expect an immediate solution. In the meantime we must endure information overload: the feeling that arises in the space of time between a sudden increase in the flow of information and the development of the tools to enable us to cope with it.

Tom Standage writing in 1843 magazine

December 18, 2018

The ultimate test of a relationship is to disagree but to hold hands. -Alexandra Penney

December 18, 2018/ Stephen Goforth

December 18, 2018

Articles of Interest - Dec 17

December 18, 2018/ Stephen Goforth

***TECHNOLOGY

‘Deepfake’ technology can now create completely real-looking human faces BigThink

Taylor Swift used facial recognition to track her stalkers at a concert Quartz

Morgan Stanley's Numbers on Flying Cars: $2.9 Trillion, 20 Years Bloomberg

The rise of the internet and a new age of authoritarianism Harpers

The Growing Gulf Between Silicon Valley and Washington The Atlantic

Google says it won’t sell face recognition for now—but it will be hard to slow its use MIT Technology Review

***THE BUSINESS OF MEDIA

Microsoft launches its Clarity web analytics tool for A/B testing sites The Next Web

Magazines and the iPad Bloomberg

The downfall of digital media (podcast) Columbia Journalism Review

How Companies Like Bored Panda, REI, and Vox Are Growing Their Organic Reach on Social Media Buffer

New media hit stumbling block, scaring away some investors Washington Post

***JOURNALISM

Time's 2018 'Person of the Year' is killed and imprisoned journalists NBC News

The Best of Nonprofit News 2018 Institute for Nonprofit News Institute for Nonprofit News

Beyond 800 words: What user testing taught me about writing news for young people BBC News Lab

'They don't care': Facebook factchecking in disarray as journalists push to cut ties The Guardian

New Report Finds That More Than 250 Journalists Were Jailed For Their Work in 2018 NPR

ProPublica Picks 14 Newsrooms and Investigative Projects for Year 2 of Its Local Reporting Network Propublica

Best News Bloopers of 2018 News Be Funny

Journalists perpetuate myth about suicide during winter holidays Journalists Resources

Access to police records is an issue all across the country Muck Rock

What happens when the third-party tools journalists rely on are shut down? Poynter

***THE BUSINESS OF JOURNALISM

Local Newspaper Closures Come With Hefty Price Tag For Residents NPR

How to understand different reader types and drive each type to subscribe American Press Institute

Jessica Starr, Fox 2 meteorologist, commits suicide at age 35 New York Post

***FAKE NEWS

Troll Factory Contributes To Russia's Worldwide Interference NPR

How Whatsapp fuels fake news and violence in india Wired

How do you make fact-checking viral? Make it look like misinformation Poynter

How Russian trolls used meme warfare to divide America Wired

***BIG DATA & AI

Kevin Kelly talks about the brain, the mind, what it takes to make AI Gigaom

Machine learning firm win a Homeland Sec contract to develop predictive models to let computers predict who might be a terrorist The Intercept

***SOCIAL MEDIA

Facebook exposed 6.8 million users' photos to cap off a terrible 2018 Wired

We asked 19 fact-checkers what they think of their partnership with Facebook Poynter

Social media is ruining our minds—it also might save them Wired

***PRIVACY & SECURITY

Homeland Security will let computers predict who might be a terrorist on your plane — just don’t ask how it works The Intercept

Mapping Service Accidentally Locates Secret Military Bases Popular Mechanics

***INTERNET

Google's top searches in 2018 Engadget

How Google’s Autotype Contradicts Orwell’s Advice The Chronicle of Higher Education

The Most Googled 'Should I?' Question Of Each State In 2018, Mapped Digg

YouTube ‘Rewind’ was supposed to celebrate 2018: It’s now the most disliked video in the site’s history Washington Post

***PERSONAL GROWTH

Seeking the Best is a Trap Becoming (my blog)

The quest for the best: a psychologist explains why it makes us miserable Vox

***WRITING & READING

How Emily Dickinson Writes A Poem Nerdwriter1

How the CIA Helped Shape the Creative Writing Scene in America Open Culture

***LANGUAGE

Jane Austen’s Subtly Subversive Linguistics Daily Jstor

'Justice' Is Merriam-Webster's 2018 Word Of The Year NPR

***RACE & ETHNICITY ISSUES

Santas of color, once met with controversy, now in high demand MPR

***FREE SPEECH

Report: 9 in 10 American colleges restrict free speech The Fire

LA College settles Lawsuit after Student Barred from handing out copies of the U.S. Constitution on Campus City News Service

***LEGAL ISSUES

Tribute Bands - Are They Legal? Music Think Tan

Paramount Defeats 'Wolf of Wall Street' Libel Suit From Stratton Oakmont Alum Hollywood Reporter

Katie Couric Wins Appeal Against Gun Rights Group Arguing Documentary Was Defamatory Hollywood Reporter

Appeals court rules that secret OxyContin documents must be released Stat News

Donald Trump, Wedding Crasher, Ends Up Being Bad Copyright News for Esquire.com Hollywood Reporter

***CRIME

Shooting Victims Face Lifelong Disabilities, Financial Burdens, Newspaper Finds NPR

Report: Half of US adults have immediate family member who has been in jail or prison CNN

***RELIGION

Max Lucado Reveals Past Sexual Abuse at Evangelical #MeToo Summit Christianity Today

The Return of Paganism New York Times

Evangelical Author Rethinks his Book “I Kissed Dating Goodbye” NPR

Christianity Today's 2019 Book Awards Christianity Today

Judge sides with religious groups in ObamaCare birth control mandate fight The Hill

At Trump's hotel, spiritual warriors pray for the president in his 'darkest hour' Religion News Service

***MEGACHURCHES

Minister accused of stealing $800,000 from Houston's First Baptist Church ABC-13

Former elders, pastors, and staffers from Chicago’s Harvest Bible Chapel accuse the church of financial mismanagement and a culture of deception and intimidation World Magazine

Houston pastor on $200K Lamborghini gift Houston Chronicle

***THE BIBLE

Meme Confuses Lincoln’s Bible With A Quran Fact Check

Slave Bible From The 1800s Omitted Key Passages That Could Incite Rebellion NPR

***GOOD NEWS

California woman and her dog reunite after Camp Fire evacuation CNN

Teens Surprised Their Professor After She Told Them The Holidays Are Difficult For Her BuzzFeed News

DNA Test Helps Mother Reunite With Daughter She Thought Died Nearly 70 Years Ago New York Times

***ART & DESIGN

We made our own artificial intelligence art (and so can you) Wired

The world's best cities for street art Afar

The 75 best book covers of 2018 according to book cover designers LitHub

***MUSIC

Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody' becomes most-streamed song of the 20th century Entertainment Weekly

Our Favorite Songs of 2018 The New Yorker

The 51 Best Albums of 2018 Spin

'Blurred Lines' suit against Robin Thicke, Pharrell ends in $5 million judgment CNN

Vladimir Putin Makes Moves To Control Rap Music In Russia Huffington Post

Beyoncé, Kendrick, Cardi, and more: The Year in Good Music News 2018 Pitchfork

How Music Can Awaken Patients with Alzheimer’s and Dementia Open Culture

***SEXUAL HARASSMENT & ASSAULT

Ex-Baylor frat president indicted on 4 counts of sex assault won't go to prison CNN

What Went Wrong in a University Harassment Investigation — and How Officials Are Trying to Fix It Chronicle of Higher Ed

***BUSINESS & FINANCE

How the IRS Was Gutted ProPublica

More Americans are making no weekly purchases with cash Pew Research

How Many Hours Americans Need to Work to Pay Their Mortgage How Much

***ENVIRONMENT

New studies suggest coral reefs are more resilient than previously thought Royal Society Publishing

Five years of record warmth intensify Arctic's transformation Nature

The state of climate change coverage: An analysis Columbia Journalism Review

***HEALTH

Questions About Treatments For Pregnant Women Arise From Study NPR

Sleeping too much can be just as damaging to your health as having too little MarketWatch

A clash between modern lifestyles and circadian rhythms can lead to the development of obesity and breast cancer, USC scientist says USC

Exercise Wins: Fit Seniors Can Have Hearts That Look 30 Years Younger NPR

Rare brain-eating amoebas killed Seattle woman who rinsed her sinuses with tap water Seattle Times

Johnson & Johnson knew for decades that asbestos lurked in its Baby Powder Reuters

***HEALTH & DIET

Scant Evidence Behind the Advice About Salt New York Times

What Is Behind the Spread of a Mysterious Allergy to Meat? The Guardian

***VACCINES

Newly elected Tennessee Rep. Mark Green says he'll question vaccines NBC News

Was a Scientist Jailed After Discovering a Deadly Virus Delivered Through Vaccines? Snopes

Scientists find more evidence that Alzheimer's can be passed to new patients via the transmission of "sticky" proteins under particular, but rare, conditions Nature

How personalized medicine is transforming your health care National Geographic

***TRAVEL

These Are The Hottest Travel Destinations for 2019, According to Airbnb Thrillist

A U.S. Transit Atlas That Ranks the Best (and Worst) Cities for Bus and Rail CityLab

***FOOD

What's lurking in your stadium food? ESPN

***FAMILY

Researchers found one way that long-term marriages get happier Quartz

Rediscovering My Daughter Through Instagram New York Times

Why shaming your children on social media may make things worse The Conversation

Most parents – and many non-parents – don’t expect to have kids in the future Pew Research

***ANIMALS

Rare white reindeer calf spotted on camera in Norway BBC

A City in Spain Plans to Exile 5,000 Pigeons New York Times

***SCIENCE

Scientists identify vast underground ecosystem containing billions of micro-organisms The Guardian

Blood Splatter: How a Dubious Forensic Science Spread Like a Virus Propublica

***PSYCHOLOGY

What it’s like to live with a chronic urge to die Huffington Post

The bad news on human nature, in 10 findings from psychology Aeon

***HISTORY

Histomap: Visualizing the 4,000 Year History of Global Power Visual Capitalist

Showering Has a Dark, Violent History The Atlantic

America returns treasured church bells it stole during the Philippine-American war New York Times

***ETHICS

Amid ethics outcry, should journals publish the ‘CRISPR babies’ paper? Stat News

You can donate your wedding dress to a person in need New York Times

***RESEARCH

EPA science adviser allowed industry group to edit journal article Science Magazine

Lessons learnt on transparency, scientific process and publication ethics: The short story of a long journey to get into the public domain unpublished data, methodological flaws and bias of the Cochrane HPV vaccines review BMJ

China introduces ‘social’ punishments for scientific misconduct Nature

Independent bodies – not universities – should investigate suspicions of scientific misconduct (opinion) Horizons

Solving the fake news problem in science: : A “citation refuting a report is counted the same way as one supporting it” Stat News

It is getting harder to publish in prestigious journals if you haven’t already Science Magazine

How art and craft can boost reproducibility Nature

***HIGHER ED

Fallout from on-campus tragedies and athletic program controversies prompts donors to circle the wagons -- or flee Inside Higher Ed

Facing Enrollment Declines, Colleges Seek Out New, Creative Ways To Make Money NPR

***CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS

Azusa Pacific University board members resign amid LGBTQ policy turmoil San Gabriel Valley Tribune

Southern Baptist Convention’s flagship seminary details its racist, slave-owning past in stark report Washington Post

Catholic U. fires professor for relationship with subordinate Washington Post

Council for Christian Colleges and Universities & the NAE back LGBT Rights in Order to Protect Religious Freedom PJ Media

Bridging the gulf between conservative Christian colleges and the arts Christian Century

***LIBERAL ARTS

How Can Colleges Help Liberal-Arts Majors Enter the Job Market? Chronicle of Higher Ed

The Liberal Arts May Not Survive the 21st Century The Atlantic

***TEACHING

Teaching the Students We Have, Not the Students We Wish We Had Chronicle of Higher Ed

How 2 Professors Use a ‘Grade Insurance’ Project to Motivate Students Chronicle of Higher Ed

How to Help a Student in a Mental-Health Crisis Chronicle of Higher Ed

***STUDENT MEDIA

Ganging Up on a Student Journalist? Inside Higher Ed

Faculty groups respond to censure issue: A “troubling disregard for the First Amendment” on the university’s part Times Daily

***STUDENT LIFE

What Straight-A Students Get Wrong (opinion) New York Times

Does It Matter Where You Go to College? The Atlantic

Trump administration held back report revealing bank charged high fees to students Politico

Researchers find an easy way to improve high school students' grades: Let them sleep in Science Mag

Sleepless No More In Seattle — Later School Start Time Pays Off For Teens NPR

***STUDENTS & DRUGS

Binge drinking among US high schoolers hit a record low in 2018 Quartz

Teen Vaping Soared In 2018 NPR

***ACADEMIC LIFE

University of Illinois professor fired for falsifying data in grant applications Chicago Tribune

Illinois Regulators Are Investigating a Psychiatrist Whose Research With Children Was Marred by Misconduct Propublica

Scientists are leaving academic work at unprecedented rate Inside Higher Ed

University of Illinois professor fired for falsifying data in grant applications Chicago Tribune

Professor sent mercenaries to save her student from ISIS The local

Man charged with beating instructors at community college KARE 11

December 17, 2018

Seeking the Best is a Trap

December 17, 2018/ Stephen Goforth

We have this sense that there is an objective best, and in virtually no area of life is that true. It’s not even that, “Well, there’s the best for me, and then there’s the best for you.” It isn’t even clear that there is a best for me. There’s a whole set of things that are probably more or less equivalent.

If you have this mindset that says, “I have to get the best,” it’s so hard to figure out what that is that you end up looking in panic around you at what other people are choosing as a way to help you figure out what is the best. I think it’s partly because they are struggling to define the best, and they can’t do it on their own, so they’re madly checking out other people’s decisions as a way of figuring out what really is the best. It’s extremely destructive.

Barry Schwartz quoted in Vox

Becoming

ideas that challenge / comfort / inspire

Articles of Interest - Jan 7

The people inside the machine

heroic imagination

Why We All Take the Same Travel Photos

through the shadows

A Compass

Articles of Interest - Dec 31

What Makes People Susceptible to Fake News

Grappling for Knowledge

Until you make peace with who you are, you’ll never be content with what you have. -Doris Mortman

Unstirred waters lead to stagnation, and stagnation can't support life. -Ron Martoia

Articles of Interest - Dec 24

She Wrapped Him in Swaddling Clothes

Treasure the love you receive above all. It will survive long after your good health has vanished. -Og Mandino

Regretting your Choices

This is a good sign, having a broken heart. It means we have tried for something. -Elizabeth Gilbert

The ultimate test of a relationship is to disagree but to hold hands. -Alexandra Penney

Articles of Interest - Dec 17

Seeking the Best is a Trap

Goforth Solutions, LLC