ideas that challenge / comfort / inspire
Digital Hoarding
/I have a confession: there are 20,577 unread emails in my inbox, 31,803 photos on my phone and 18 browser tabs currently open on my laptop. Digital clutter has invaded my life and I have no idea what to do with it.
Emerging research on digital hoarding – a reluctance to get rid of the digital clutter we accumulate through our work and personal lives – suggests that it can make us feel just as stressed and overwhelmed as physical clutter. Not to mention the cybersecurity problems it can cause for individuals and businesses and the way it makes finding that one email you need sometimes seem impossible.
Instead of berating ourselves for having too many unread emails or taking too many selfies, perhaps we’d be better off setting aside time to regain control of our digital clutter – one virtual photo album at a time.
Kelly Oakes writing for the BBC
Articles of Interest - Jan 28
/***SOCIAL MEDIA
12 of the Best Social Media Analytics Tools (and How They Can Help Your Business) Social Media Today
3 brands that use social media snark effectively (and deliciously) PR Daily
Tinder agrees to settle age discrimination lawsuit TechCrunch
We Followed YouTube’s Recommendation Algorithm Down The Rabbit Hole
***SOCIAL MEDIA: THE INFLUENCERS
10 Influencers under 10 Ad Age
2-year-old Instagrammers make more than you Fast Company
Is It Time to Regulate Social Media Influencers? (opinion) New York Magazine
***SOCIAL MEDIA: FACEBOOK
Facebook knowingly duped game-playing kids and their parents out of money Reveal News
Facebook Moves to Block Ad Transparency Tools — Including Ours Propublica
***MOBILE
Steve Jobs Never Wanted Us to Use Our iPhones Like This New York Times
Get Ready for Weird Phones Wired
FaceTime bug lets you hear or see through someone else’s iPhone, even if they haven’t answered BongBong
***PRODUCING MEDIA
How to download Photoshop free or with Creative Cloud Creative Bloq
***JOURNALISM
How Innovative Newsrooms Are Using Artificial Intelligence Global Investigative Journalism Network
I'm glad I didn't give up on journalism" (L.A. Times' Kimi Yoshino) Poynter
Iowa House denying press credentials to influential blogger Associated Press
4chan trolls flood laid off HuffPost, BuzzFeed reporters with death threats NBC News
Crafted storytelling vs raw content Journalism.co
It doesn’t take a ton of nasty comments to sink a reader’s perception of a news site Harvard’s Neiman Lab
ProPublica makes corrections to a story about Oregon’s courts ProPublica
2019 Edelman Trust Barometer Edelman
***THE BUSINESS OF JOURNALISM
Media industry loses about 1,000 jobs as layoffs hit news organizations CNN
The Economist launches daily news podcast with 8 staffers Digiday
What The Latest Layoffs Mean For Digital Journalism NPR
Johns Hopkins University is buying the building that houses the Newseum which will move Washington Post
Cancel in protest? Or stay with a local newspaper that’s being strip-mined for profits? Washington Post
***FAKE NEWS
Why Camera Angles And Bias Support Different Opinions NP
YouTube says it will crack down on recommending conspiracy videos CNN
Just 1% of Twitter users exposed to 80% of fake news during the 2016 U.S. election Venture Beat
Medical News: What Can You Trust? can you know when studies are based on solid science? Bottom Line Inc
Fake news on Twitter during the 2016 U.S. presidential election Science Mag
Do people fall for fake news because they’re partisan or because they’re lazy? Researchers are divided Harvard’s Nieman Lab
4 ways to know when a conspiracy theory is almost surely false Big Think
The man who helps the internet make fake news Columbia Journalism Review
***BIG DATA & AI
We analyzed 16,625 papers to figure out where AI is headed next: the era of deep learning is coming to an end MIT Tech Review
Google’s DeepMind AI Is So Good It’s Beating Pro Gamers High Snobiety
Meet the scientists who are training AI to diagnose mental illness The Verge
10 influential data scientists and why you should follow them Tech Beacon
***INTERNET
10 Year Challenge: How Popular Websites Have Changed Arun
Google Urged the U.S. to Limit Protection For Activist Workers Bloomberg
Google putting money, machine learning into Wikipedia Wired
Meet the man behind a third of what's on Wikipedia CBS News
Three new editing features in Gmail ZDnet
Google Tests Dynamic Email In Android App Media Post
How to Spend Way Less Time on Email Every Day Harvard Business Review
***PERSONAL GROWTH
Routine and Ritual Becoming (my blog)
There's little evidence that digital detoxes improve mental health Quartz
***WRITING & READING
The Most Redundant Words to Delete From Your Writing Medium
Students Want to Write Well; We Don’t Let Them (review of Why They Can’t Write: Killing the Five-Paragraph Essay and Other Necessities) LA Review of Books
'The New Childhood' makes case that video games, social media are good for kids USA Today
***LANGUAGE
Colleges Lose a ‘Stunning’ 651 Foreign-Language Programs in 3 Years Chronicle of Higher Education
Learning a language means failure, embarrassment and the enrichment of your life LA Times
***LITERATURE
‘Keats is dead...’: How young women are changing the rules of poetry The Guardian
A dazzling array of works from 1923 are now available freely to scholars, artists and writers, opening up new possibilities for teaching and publishing Inside Higher Ed
15 Classic Titles If They Were Written As Clickbait Medium
Why should you read “Fahrenheit 451”? TEDx
***GENDER
India women: First female climbs sacred mountain BBC
Gender Gap most pronounced for publications in top journals London School of Economics and Political Science
This Mom Became The First Woman To Win A 268-Mile Race And Did It While Pumping Breast Milk For Her Baby BuzzFeed News
Why it’s much easier for men to get into the Ivy League than women New York Post
Masculinity And U.S. Extremism: What Makes Young Men Vulnerable To Toxic Ideologies NPR
Transgender pronouns provide challenge, opportunity in workplace San Francisco Chronicle
Ms., Mr. or Mx.? Nonbinary teachers embrace gender-neutral honorific NBC News
UAE's gender equality awards won entirely by men The Guardian
Americans’ views on masculinity differ by party, gender and race Pew Research Center
***RACE & ETHNICITY ISSUES
Tips for finding and pitching stories with a race-focused angle The Ground Truth Product
Amazon’s facial analysis tech often mistakes dark-skinned women for men, study shows Vox
***LEGAL ISSUES
State judge declares Iowa's "fetal heartbeat" abortion ban unconstitutional Reuters
Supreme Court won’t hear a lawsuit over defamatory Yelp reviews The Verge
Expert witness wins billions—and makes enemies—as he fights companies over public health Science Mag
What Happens to the Billions of Dollars of Counterfeits Seized Every Year? The Fashion Law Blog
Parody Washington Post Leads To Bogus Legal Threat, And A Reminder Of An Old Internet Lawsuit TechDirt
An Analysis of Title I and Title III of The Music Modernization Act Technology & Marketing Law Review
***CRIME
Austin police order deeper investigation after audit finds misclassified cleared rape cases Reveal News
Police Are Failing To Catch Most Shooters In Many Big Cities: Often, They Shoot Again BuzzFeed News
Emergency Blue-Light Phones Are a Symbol of Safety. Is Symbolism Worth Thousands? Chronicle of Higher Education
How police departments make millions by seizing property The Greenville News
***RELIGION
After 24 Years, Scholar Completes 3,000-Page Translation Of The Hebrew Bible NPR
Pilots killed in Monday crash dedicated lives to Christian missions Times Reporter
***RELIGION AND POLITICS
Provoked By Trump, The Religious Left Is Finding Its Voice NPR
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez quotes the Bible after Sarah Huckabee Sanders says she should leave climate change up to God Business Insider
Trump administration grants waiver to agency that works only with Christian families Washington Post
Like Americans overall, U.S. Catholics are sharply divided by party Pew Research Center
Why Trump is tweeting about studying the Bible Vox
***GOOD NEWS
This girls basketball team lost 102-2, has no wins, yet keeps taking the court Tampa Bay
Golden retriever saves owner by leading an ambulance to him New York Post
Hingham teacher gets emotional surprise in viral video Patriot Ledger
66 Years On, Minn. Navy Medic Reunites With Baby Saved From Ash Can In Seoul WCCO
Couple working on home for charity finds hidden bag of money hidden and give it to the nonprofit Fox 9
Buddhist wins $670,000 in poker tournament, gives it to charity New York Post
Local Chick-fil-A opens Sunday for special needs boy WKRG
Three-year-old boy missing in woods for two days says friendly bear kept him safe The Guardian
When a boy called 911 after tough day at school, Lafayette dispatcher was there to help JC online
***ART & DESIGN
The winners of the 7th annual Ocean Art Photo competition New Atlas
Kamala Harris’s Logo Is a Disaster: Here’s Why The Bulwark
Design Checklist for the Perfect Charts UX Planet
How Color Affects our Perceptions of Art and Brands Medium
***MUSIC
Fender's new acoustic guitar has a million different voices Wired
The Most Sampled Loop in Music History Great Big Story
Spotify data shows how music preferences change with latitude Ars Technica
Every Place in Beatles Lyrics, Mapped Vanity Fair
The History of the Quirky Music Typewriter: Vintage Technologies for Printing Musical Notation Open Culture
A Brief History of Rock Musicians Who Went Electronic Vulture
An Interactive Visualization of Every Line in Hamilton Pudding
***JOBS
How can you prepare for the future of work? The answer is not “learn to code” Recode
Oscar Mayer on the hunt for its next Wienermobile driver Fox 45
***INTERNSHIPS/SCHOLARSHIPS
Summer 2019 Journalism + Communications Academic Internship Program Washington, DC.
ProPublica is giving away 20 scholarships to help students attend journalism conferences
***SEXUAL HARASSMENT & ASSAULT
Campus police told multiple times of student harassment: They did little—and he murdered her Inside Higher Ed
***SOCIAL ISSUES: IMMIGRATION
Majority of Americans Support High-Skilled Immigration Pew Research Center
They Left Food and Water for Migrants in the Desert – Now They Might Go to Prison Washington Post
World's 26 richest people own as much as poorest 50% The Guardian
***SOCIAL ISSUES: COVINGTON
PR firm played a key role in Covington Catholic controversy Courier-Journal
Gay valedictorian banned from speaking at Covington graduation 'not surprised' by D.C. controversy NBC News
***BUSINESS & FINANCE
Alabama Church Gives $16,500 In Grocery Gift Cards To Furloughed Federal Workers Huffington Post
These are the 10 best freelance gigs and side hustles in 2019 Fast Company
***ENVIRONMENT
Most Americans say weather disasters shifted their views on climate change PBS
Civil penalties for polluters dropped dramatically in Trump’s first two years, analysis shows Washington Post
Activists want to carve Trump’s face into glacier to show climate change is real Metro.co
The New Language of Climate Change Politico
***HEALTH
The Cost of Giving Birth in the U.S. Scientific American Blog Network
The Mental Image of a Loved One Can Keep Down Blood Pressure Psychology Today
Washington is under a state of emergency as measles cases rise CNN
He wanted to see his cancer from the inside. With virtual reality, he can Stat News
This autism dad has a warning for anti-vaxxers Vox
***HEALTH RESEARCH
Scientists may have found a way to kill cancer cells without chemotherapy BigThink
Germs in Your Gut Are Talking to Your Brain. Scientists Want to Know What They’re Saying New York Times
***ANIMALS
Man says emotional support alligator helps his depression Associated Press
Watchdog: Animal deaths, including suffocation, at Boston-area lab Boston Herald
Vet Tech Warns Pet Parents After Dog Ingests Meth, THC at Dog Beach NBC San Diego
***SCIENCE
New Netflix Show 'Brainchild' Makes Science Fun For Kids NPR
A 500-Year-Long Science Experiment Started In 2014 The Atlantic
***PSYCHOLOGY
Faking it: how selfie dysmorphia is driving people to seek surgery The Guardian
Got Anger? Try Naming It To Tame It NPR
Art Thief Gives A Picture-Perfect Illustration Of The Bystander Effect Digg
200 cognitive biases rule our everyday thinking Big Think
***NEUROSCIENCE
Brain researchers warn that lack of sleep is a public health crisis New Haven Register
How a Periodic Table of Brains Could Revolutionize Neuroscience Gizmodo
***PHILOSOPHY
Need a New Self-Help Guru? Try Aristotle New York Times
Søren Kierkegaard On the Perils of Procrastination Philosophy Now
***PRODUCTIVITY
You can’t be productive without routines and rituals. Here’s why Fast Company
These are the most stressed out cities in America Zippia
A Nobel Prize-winning psychologist explains why we’re always wrong about how long tasks take Quartz
***HISTORY
The short history of global living conditions and why it matters that we know it Our World in Data
30 Years After Explosion, Challenger Engineer Still Blames Himself NPR
Historians talk about Walls Rolling Stone
The History of the phrase “Witch hunt!” Vox
***ETHICS
Reuters article highlights ethical issues with native advertising Columbia Journalism Review
‘Sinning against Science Itself’ Adolf Friedrich Nolde’s 1799 Code of Good Research Practice Researchet
***RESEARCH
Should Journal Editors be treated as 'Human Subjects'? Some People think so (opinion) Inside Higher Ed
University’s investigation of a researcher who published hoax papers misses the point of ethical oversight (opinion; sub. req’ed) Times Higher Ed
The humanities do not need a replication drive CWTS
How a ‘low-key’ study needed 89 professionals to approve it and how we can do better BMC
The Open Data Explosion: Scientists are working to maximize the benefits and minimize the costs of sharing The Scientist
Indian academics lead the world in publishing in fake journals – tarring the whole education sector Scroll.in
Dear Editor (An Authors' Wish List to Medical Journal Editors) Nature Microbiology
***HIGHER ED
Want to Learn How the World Sees Your College? Look on YouTube Chronicle of Higher Education
College administrators are figuring out how electronic cigarettes, which are exploding in popularity, fit into their antismoking policies Inside Higher Ed
***TEACHING
Yes, Your Syllabus Is Way Too Long Chronicle of Higher Ed
When Online Trolls Show Up in Class, Should Professors Be Able to Ban Them? Chronicle of Higher Ed
***ACADEMIC LIFE
University overhauls its system for faculty evaluation to de-emphasize quantitative metrics Inside Higher Ed
College fires professor accused of giving Nazi salute Associated Press
Website offers ‘complete PhD service’ for £36K (sub. req’ed) Times Higher Ed
Professor says criticism led to closure of program she heads Associated Press
Duke professor warns Chinese students: Speak English on campus or face ‘unintended consequences’ Washington Post
Ave Maria University calls the loan of a former professor who sued the university, possibly forcing him, his wife and their nine children from their home Inside Higher Ed
***STUDENT MEDIA
Student Newspaper at Drexel University to cease print publication College Media Matters
A High School Allegedly Banned Students From Covering A Classmate’s Arrest BuzzFeed News
***STUDENT LIFE
Making a Gap Year More Than an Overseas Vacation Chronicle of Higher Education
Six college experiences that make students confident job seekers Gallup
Student files lawsuit over alleged plagiarism against UC Board of Regents Daily Cal
The Fleecing of Millennials New York Times
Routine and Ritual
/While routine aims to make the chaos of everyday life more containable and controllable, ritual aims to imbue the mundane with an element of the magical. The structure of routine comforts us, and the specialness of ritual vitalizes us. A full life calls for both — too much control, and we become mummified; too little excitement and pleasurable discombobulation, and we become numb. After all, to be overly bobulated is to be dead inside — to doom oneself to a life devoid of the glorious and ennobling messiness of the human experience.
Maria Popova writing in Brain Pickings
Intensive Parenting
/Some social scientists have theorized, the tilt toward intensive parenting originated at least in part from parents’ anxieties about their children competing for education and jobs. Many children surely benefit from being raised like this—concerted cultivation can serve them well later in life, teaching them how to manage their time and assert their individuality. But heavily involved parenting can at the same time stunt kids’ sense of self-reliance, and overcommitted after-school schedules can leave them exhausted. Also, there is some evidence that parents who overdo it increase the risk that their children will grow up to be depressed and less satisfied with life. And on the parents’ side, the intensive ideal can lead parents—particularly mothers—to fear that they aren’t doing enough to give their child the best future possible.
Joe Pinsker writing in The Atlantic
Tuesday Tech Tools: Design
/Some of the tools available for graphic design and UX design.
Adobe Indesign
Adobe product that is the industry standard for page layouts and design (posters, flyers, brochures, magazines, newspapers and books). For professionals and high end projects but for personal or smaller projects, there are other programs with a lower learning curve.
Adobe Pagemaker
While not on the level of Adobe InDesign, it is an effective page layout program for the non-professional. Includes predesigned templates that can be modified.
Adobe Kuler
Find complementary color palettes using a color wheel.
Axure
For UX design. A wireframing prototyping software tool. No coding needed. Aimed at web and desktop applications.
Balsamiq
Design software, a quick starter for wireframing tool.
Butterick's Practical Typography
Everything font-related including kerning, spacing, formatting, and more.
Color Me
Visualize hex colors.
Commarts
"Inspiration for graphic designers, art directors, design firms, corporate design departments, advertising agencies, interactive designers, illustrators and photographers—everyone involved in visual communication."
Design Thinking
Blog by Tim Brown about Design issues. Brown is author of Change by Design.
DesignEvo
Create logos. Easy to use but the free version allows only limited sizes and only paid accounts get trademark options. The paid accounts are somewhat expensive.
Font Feed
A "daily dispatch of recommended fonts, typography techniques, and inspirational examples of digital type at work in the real world."
FontJoy
This site will generates font pairings for your design project whether you are aiming to create balance, tension or set off content. Free.
Font Shop
This link takes you to the design section of the website where you can "improve your design skills with typography tips and tutorials. FontShop Education docs are formatted for easy downloading and printing, perfect for the classroom or studio." There's also a healthy glossary section, among other things.
How Design
This site seeks to meet the "business, creativity and technology needs of graphic designers."
Idea Mag
Japanese design magazine.
Keynotopia
UI design templates.
QuarkXpress
Page layouts for Mac or PC.Alternative to Adobe InDesign.
Lucid Press
Page layouts for the non-professional to design flyers, newsletters, etc.
MockPlus
Prototyping tool for Mobile app design. Drop and drag. No coding needed.
MyFonts
Large selection of professional fonts.
OmniGraffle
Design software. Industry standard.
Page Stream
Page layouts for the non-professional to design flyers, newsletters, etc.
Principle
Popular UI prototyping tools for designing mobile apps. Especially useful for creating animation. No coding skill needed. $129.
Print Mag
Design tips, education, resources from Print Magazine, a bimonthly magazine about visual culture and design.
SassMe
Colum vizualize color functions by inserting Hex codes.
Society for News Design
Columns and tips on design, workshop schedule, membership database and more.
Society of Publication Designers
Scribus
Page layouts. Alternative to Adobe InDesign.
UXPin
Prototyping tool for Mobile app design. Simple setup with drop and drag.
What the Font
Figures out what font you are looking at.
More Tech Tools here.
Articles of Interest - Jan 21
/***JOURNALISM
Google is Partnering With WordPress to Develop a News Publishing Platform Search Engine Journal
Journalists Press for Shield Law Broadcasting & Cable
NYT had journalists swim across border for podcast, NAHJ slams program iMediaEthics
Nearly three-quarters of Republicans say the news media don’t understand people like them Pew Research Center
The Rise of Populism and the Damages to Journalism Monday Note
The differences in how CNN MSNBC & FOX cover the News Pudding
***THE BUSINESS OF JOURNALISM
No, tech companies shouldn’t fund journalism Columbia Journalism Review
***FAKE NEWS
How an elaborate international scam is making the rounds among Instagrammers & photographers This Life of Travel
How to Inoculate Against Anti-Vaxxers New York Times
President Trump Posts Altered Photos to Facebook and Instagram That Make Him Look Thinner (and his fingers longer) Gizmodo
A nude-photo hoax was supposed to silence Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: Instead, she turned up the volume Washington Post
***TECHNOLOGY
Move over, coders—physicists will soon rule silicon valley Wired
Japan’s robot hotel lays off half the robots after they created more work for humans The Verge
The Limitations of your Voice Assistant Wired
CRISPR babies are real and the scientist who made them sought “personal fame and fortune” MIT Tech Review
***BIG DATA & AI
Move over, coders—physicists will soon rule silicon valley Wired
AI is better at bluffing than professional gamblers (and turning the professional gambling on its head) Engadget
How to make great-looking, fully-interactive plots with a single line of Python Towards Data Science
A new breed of AI intelligent video surveillance is being installed in schools around the country Axios
***SOCIAL MEDIA
Kylie Jenner Responds To The New Most-Liked Instagram With Her Own Egg Post Delish
Report: WhatsApp surpasses Facebook as the social network's most popular app The Next Web
Facebook launches petition feature Tech Crunch
Facebook Limits WhatsApp Message Forwards Media Post
The Impact Of Facebook Fundraisers On Charitable Giving (infographic) Daily Infographic
***PRIVACY & SECURITY
Mother of All Breaches Exposes 773 Million Emails, 21 Million Passwords Gizmodo
Millions of Chinese CVs exposed on cloud server BBC
ACLU sues 7 government agencies over social media surveillance Axios
Facebook's '10 Year Challenge' Is Just a Harmless Meme—Right? Wired
The government shutdown has severely weakened cybersecurity in the US MIT Technology Review
NSA Puts Phone Charging Booth at SchmooCon in Plot to Go Viral Gizmodo
Malware can now evade cloud security tools, as cybercriminals target public cloud users Tech Republic
***PRODUCING MEDIA
Top 3 compact cameras for the photo enthusiast Wired
***THE INTERNET
The Internet is Facing a Catastrophe For Free Expression and Competition Electronic Freedom Foundation
***PERSONAL GROWTH
I Want Your Life (the draw of social media) Becoming (my blog)
Finally, A Personality Quiz Backed By Science FiveThirtyEight
How to become a better conversationalist Fast Company
The best way I’ve found to keep digital monsters at bay: Meditation Every Day (opinion) New York Times
Nearly Half of American Adults Don't Know Their Own Blood Type (and other things about themselves) Mental Floss
***LANGUAGE
Grammar Girl" on the biggest changes in language Quartz
Some words go out of fashion Economist
***LITERATURE
How Curses Function in Literature New York Times
Mary Oliver, Who Believed Poetry 'Mustn't Be Fancy,' Dies At 83 NPR
***GENDER
The Gillette Effect: What a Single Ad Reveals About American Men (opinion) Medium
Woman Didn’t Know Progress On Toxic Masculinity Would Turn Boyfriend Into Such A Weepy Little Pansy The Onion
University Seeks Dismissal of Lawsuit filed by Professor after disciplinary action was taken against over a transgendered student Irinton Tribune
***RACE & ETHNICITY ISSUES
AeroMexico offers discounts based on Mexican (video)
Videos show Kentucky high schoolers in DC for right Life March mocking Native American marchers WHAS-TV
Kentucky diocese apologizes after videos show students in ‘MAGA’ hats mocking Native Americans AL.com
***FREE SPEECH
India’s plan to curb hate speech could mean more censorship Wired
***LEGAL ISSUES
Disney files copyright claim on YouTuber’s Darth Vader film—and the creator is devastated Daily Dot
The Mars Argo copyright infringement dispute The 1709 Blog
Popular YouTube channel in danger of disappearing because of copyright claims Daily Dot
Court: Cops Can't Compel the Use of Body Parts to Unlock Phones Tech News World
***CRIME
The FBI Says Its Photo Analysis Is Scientific Evidence: Scientists Disagree Propublica
National Some U.S. police departments dump body-camera programs amid high costs Washington Post
***RELIGION
'McJesus' Sculpture To Be Pulled From Israeli Museum After Violent Protests NPR
LifeWay to close stores in shift to digital strategy Baptist News
Pat Boone's wife Dies USA Today
SBC leader says APA guidelines on ‘toxic masculinity’ do not square with Scripture Baptist News
Why Christian Movies Are So Terrible (opinion) For the Church
The Top Reasons Young People Drop Out of Church Christianity Today
History shows the folly of China’s paranoia about Islam Economist
Similar ideas between Buddhism and Western psychology BigThink
***RELIGION AND POLITICS
U.S. Evangelicals Push Back Against Trump's Syria Pullout Plan NPR
Top Democrats Press Trump on Plans to Seize Historic Church Land for Border Wall The Daily Beast
Lady Gaga Slams Mike Pence: He’s ‘The Worst Representation’ Of Christianity Huffington Post
***GOOD NEWS
Plea for birthday cards draws 50,000 well-wishes for Fullerton World War II vet Orange County Register
Salon Welcomes Their Rival Business With Open Arms, After Disaster Closed Their Doors CBS New York
Couple divorces then she gives him her kidney Twin Cities
Along with shave and a haircut, this dementia-friendly barber offers 'a bit of dignity’ Washington Post
***GOOD NEWS ABOUT KIDS
I’m Only 9, And I’m Already In College: Here’s What Life Is Like For Me Huffington Post
A 10-year-old boy had an idea to help poor people: 14 years and 8,000 bikes later, he's still at it Washington Post
11 year old is globally renowned crochet prodigy LaCrosse Tribune
***ART & DESIGN
Should designers learn to code? UX Design
Why designers shouldn’t bother learning to code The Next Web
The Best Prototyping Tools for 2018 Awwwards
A fraudster tried to forge documents: His font choice gave him away Ars Technica
Download Vincent van Gogh's Collection of 500 Japanese Prints, Which Inspired Him to Create "the Art of the Future" Open Culture
***MUSIC
Toto’s ‘Africa’ Will Play Forever—Or at Least Until the Next Windstorm—in the Namib Desert Smithsonian Mag
The economics of streaming is making songs shorter Quartz
Hip Hop uses a more diverse vocabulary than Rock and Country Pudding
***FILM
How Movie Genres Have Changed In Popularity Since 1910, Visualized Digg
X-Men, Mad Max star Nicholas Hoult to play Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien in biopic Winter is Coming
How They Filmed the First El Capitan Climb With No Ropes (video) Vanity Fair
Jodie Foster Teaches Filmmaking in Her First Online Course Open Culture
45 classic movies you can watch for free on YouTube right now Daily Dot
“Roma” reflects on Mexico’s past, and its present Economist
***SEXUAL HARASSMENT & ASSAULT
He used the journal he edited to rebut allegations of sexual harassment: Now Two Universities Have Found Against Him BuzzFeed News
UN survey finds more than one third of workers experiences sexual harassment in last two years Fox News
***SOCIAL ISSUES
$11 toothpaste: Immigrants pay big for basics at private ICE lock-ups Reuters
Trump administration separated thousands more migrants than previously known Politico
Photos: Built to Separate—Border Barriers Around the World The Atlantic
Pharma spending on doctors is correlated with opioid deaths Wired
The rise of a global class-driven trust divide Axios
***BUSINESS & FINANCE
The Psychology Behind Kids' L.O.L. Surprise! Doll Obsession Mental Floss
The Weakness of Company Wellness Programs Economist
the 10 Hottest Affordable Neighborhoods of 2019 Redfin
Immigrant Entrepreneurs Founded 44 of Fortune 100 Firms Fortune
Lab Rats: Why Modern Work Makes People Miserable (book review) Economist
***ENVIRONMENT
Ice loss from Antarctica has sextupled since the 1970s, new research finds Washington Post
Insect collapse: ‘We are destroying our life support systems’ The Guardian
Teenage Diver Finds Tons Of Golf Balls Rotting Off California NPR
The world's most popular coffee species are going extinct. And scientists say we are to blame MSNBC
A genetically modified house-plant can purify the atmosphere in buildings Economist
***HEALTH
What It's Like to Be Allergic to Corn The Atlantic
Anti-vax Movement Listed by World Health Organization as One of the Top 10 Health Threats for 2019 Newsweek
Hospitals Must Now Post Prices But It May Take a Brain Surgeon to Decipher Them New York Times
15 articles that challenge the prevailing wisdom, or dogma, from 2018 Medscape
Woman with Rare Condition Couldn’t Hear Male Voices Live Science
Stuck and Stressed: The Health Costs of Traffic New York Times
***MEDICAL RESEARCH
Adding new DNA letters make novel proteins possible: One such, a cancer drug, is now in development Economist
Scientists discover hidden blood networks that cross through bone STAT News
What Marijuana Science Says, and Doesn’t Say Undark
***TRAVEL
Orkin's Top 50 Bed Bug Cities List Orkin
11 Travel Predictions For 2019 Forbes
***FOOD
This Is How to Drink Bubble Tea Without Finishing the Tea First World of Buzz
A brie(f) history of cheese (video)
***FAMILY
Calculating the average effective salary of a stay-at-home mom Salary
Mom sent to hospital by sippy cup explosion Idaho News
The continuing importance of the family Smaller, more heterogeneous, but still indispensable Economist
***PARENTING
Forget Screen Time Rules — Lean In To Parenting Your Wired Child, Author Says NPR
The early years are getting increasing attention Economist
‘Intensive’ Parenting takes a lot of time and money, and many families can’t pull it off The Atlantic
How children interact with digital media Economist
The art and science of parenting: Fewer kids can be a lot more work Economist
Parenting methods are exacerbating social divisions Economist
***SCIENCE
The butterfly effect: It’s not what you think it is Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science
Science funding is a mess. Could grant lotteries make it better? Vox
***PSYCHOLOGY
How Do People Communicate Before Death? The Atlantic
How to Conquer Perfectionism Before it Beats You Medium
Postpartum Psychosis Often Mishandled NPR
Real-Life Expanding Brain Technique Is Blowing Some Minds Gizmodo
***PRODUCTIVITY
Does Multitasking Really Tire Out My Brain? Medium
***HISTORY
A brief history of the past 100 YEARS as told through the New York Times archives Pudding
***ETHICS
Trump’s interpreters for Putin meetings face ethical dilemma The Conversation
NYT faced hard choice over graphic photo selection Poynter
***RESEARCH
Websites like ResearchGate and Academia.edu “pit scientists against each Nature
Mixed Realities, Virtual Reality, and Augmented Reality in Scholarly Publishing The Scholarly Kitchen
A Beginner’s Guide to the Peer Review System Inside Higher Ed
Journal websites often do not contain basic info about reviewer selection, review criteria, the use of digital tools, policies on corrections and retractions, etc Science Institute for Science in Society
A common and important statistical mistake: How post-hoc power calculation is like a shit sandwich Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science
***HIGHER ED
Michigan State President Steps Down After Insulting Comments About Abuse Survivors NPR
Must Universities Shut Down Constitutionally Protected Speech Forums That Also Enable Student Harassment? Technology & Marketing Law Blog
The rise in American high-school graduation rates looks puffed-up Economist
Liberty U. Senior Official Accepted Bag of Money for Helping Trump in Online Polls, Report Says The Chronicle of Higher Education
Federal judge blocks Trump's religious exemption to birth control Reuters
***STUDENT LIFE
Pew Research decides where Millennials end and Generation Z Pew Research Center
These high school valedictorians set off to change the world: But good grades only got them so far Boston Globe
Professor sends letter to students: 'Please use deodorant' Houston.com
***TEACHING
Colleges Are Getting Smarter About Student Evaluations: Here’s How The Chronicle of Higher Education
No, Rate My Professors Probably Won’t Remove Your Profile The Chronicle of Higher Education
How One Instructor Stopped Himself From Lecturing Too Much Chronicle of Higher Education
MOOCs in Decline: Insights into multi-year data from MIT and Harvard e-Literate
I Want Your Life
/We all know what we see on Facebook or Instagram isn’t “real,” but that doesn’t mean we don’t judge ourselves against it. I find that millennials are far less jealous of objects or belongings on social media than the holistic experiences represented there, the sort of thing that prompts people to comment, I want your life. That enviable mix of leisure and travel, the accumulation of pets and children, the landscapes inhabited and the food consumed seems not just desirable, but balanced, satisfied, and unafflicted by burnout.
Posting on social media, after all, is a means of narrativizing our own lives: What we’re telling ourselves our lives are like. And when we don’t feel the satisfaction that we’ve been told we should receive from a good job that’s “fulfilling,” balanced with a personal life that’s equally so, the best way to convince yourself you’re feeling it is to illustrate it for others.
“Branding” is a fitting word for this work, as it underlines what the millennial self becomes: a product. And as in childhood, the work of optimizing that brand blurs whatever boundaries remained between work and play. There is no “off the clock” when at all hours you could be documenting your on-brand experiences or tweeting your on-brand observations.
Anne Helen Petersen writing in BuzzFeed News
Articles of Interest - Week of Jan 14
/***2018
Our Favorite Facts of 2018 New York Times
Top 18 Data Visualizations of 2018 How Much
2018's top 7 libraries and packages for data science and AI Heartbeat
The 2018 Storyhunter Staff Pick Awards Story Hunter
The biggest science stories of 2018: From the edge of the solar system to crises on Earth Washington Post
List of visualization best-of-year lists, 2018 FlowingData
The best and worst of 2018, in 85 lists Inside Hook
***2019
50 Things Turning 50 in 2019 Mental Floss
Tech trends 2019: 'The end of truth as we know it?' BBC
***BIG DATA & AI
60 minutes looks at how one man is advancing artificial intelligence CBS News
Understanding Generative Adversarial Networks and what makes them interesting Toward Data Science
Scenarios have been discovered in which it is impossible to prove whether or not a machine-learning algorithm could solve a particular problem Nature Magazine
***SOCIAL MEDIA
***SOCIAL MEDIA & POLITICS
Newly elected congressmember AOC offers older colleagues a master class in social media Wired
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has more Twitter power than media, establishment Axios
***JOURNALISM
Facebook says it will invest $300 Million in Local News TechCrunch
Reporter Attacked While Broadcasting Live CBS Sacramento
The newspaper that #MeToo missed At Las Vegas Review-Journal, allegations of misconduct were met with little change Columbia Journalism Review
***FAKE NEWS
Democrats Targeted Roy Moore With Fake Campaign US News
'Fake News' Results In Real Jail Time For Ohio Woman Tech Dirt
Who was most likely to share fake news in 2016? Seniors Washington Post
Oft-quoted paper on spread of fake news turns out to be…fake news Retraction Watch
***PRIVACY & SECURITY
America’s Electric Grid Has a Vulnerable Back Door—and Russia Walked Through It (sub. req’ed) Wall Street Journal
Hacks Are Getting So Common That Companies Are Turning To 'Cyber Insurance' NPR
Previously secret CIA report documents spear attack against surveillance plane ArsTechnica
***INTERNET
The 20 Most Popular Websites, Charted From 1998 To 2018 Digg
Google Reveals How It Approaches SEO Media Post
Numerous Government Sites' HTTPS Certificates Expire Amid Shutdown DailyDot
The Rise and Demise of RSS Motherboard
***WRITING & READING
Indie bookstores flourish in an Amazon world Axios
How To Start Reading Poetry If You Have No Idea Where To Begin Bustle
Is Skim Reading the New Normal? Psychology Today
***LANGUAGE
YouGov survey: British sarcasm 'lost on Americans' BBC
Learn Spanish Through Pop Music Using This App Life Hacker
***LITERATURE
Physiological essay on Gulliver’s Travels: a correction after three centuries Springer
Long-lost Jane Austen family photo album discovered on eBay Fox News
***GENDER
Men in the US have More daily leisure Time than Women The Atlantic
An analysis of dental plaque illuminates the forgotten history of female scribes The Atlantic
***RACE & ETHNICITY ISSUES
What A Case Of Mistaken Identity Tells Us About Race In America NPR
The father of DNA says he still believes in a link between race, intelligence. His lab just stripped him of his titles Washington Post
***LEGAL ISSUES
Families of Sandy Hook shooting victims win legal victory against InfoWars, Alex Jones ABC News
Cops Can't Force People to Unlock Their Phones With Biometrics, Court Rules Gizomdo
***CRIME
How true-crime podcasts find clues the police miss BBC
Groveland Four pardoned by Florida clemency board Miami Herald
***PERSONAL GROWTH
Adulting Burnout Becoming (my blog)
'Affective Presence': How You Make Other People Feel The Atlantic
Physics explains why time passes faster as you age Quartz
***RELIGION
Conservative Evangelicals Attempt to Disentangle Their Faith from Trumpism New Yorker
One year after the American Bible Society issued an ultimatum, almost 20 percent of its staff has quit Philadelphia Inquirer
Did the U.S. Supreme Court Rule That Oaths Not Taken on the Bible Are ‘Illegal’? Snopes
***RELIGION AND POLITICS
Evangelical group wants gays removed from anti-lynching bill NBC News
Megachurch pastor with ties to George W. Bush indicted on $3.5 million fraud ABC News
***GOOD NEWS
11-year-old saves man almost twice his size from drowning KARE TV
The 90-Year-Old Doper Is Not A Doper At All: The Carl Grove Case FloBikes
Lost teddy bear gets luxury five-star hotel break in Hawaii CNN
***GOOD NEWS WITH ANIMALS
Through her lemonade stand, Texas girl raises thousands for animal rescues The Week
Stranger drives 2,300 miles to reunite boy recovering from surgery with his dog CBS News
Stray Dog Adopted By Gas Station Rushes To The Rescue During Armed Robbery The Dodo
***ART & DESIGN
Panoramic Photographs by Peter Li Bring an Otherworldly Perspective to the Architectural Symmetry of Churches This is Colossal
Graphic designer recreates vintage maps, adding stunning 3-D elevation Scott Reinhard
How science and tech left an imprint on 3 iconic paintings Wired
***MUSIC
Nina Simone's 'Lovely, Precious Dream' For Black Children NPR
Independent Music Publicists Grapple With a Shrinking Media Landscape Billboard
Old, meet new: Sony introduces a wireless turntable for vinyl records Ars Technica
***FILM
Scientists Have Determined the Most Influential Film of All Time Curiosity
***SOCIAL ISSUES
How Cities Make Money by Fining the Poor New York Times
The Weight I Carry What it’s like to be too big in America The Atlantic
Pet opioid prescriptions have soared, Penn study finds. But who’s really using the meds? Philadelphia Inquirer
Report: Americans Are Now More Likely To Die Of An Opioid Overdose Than On The Road NPR
***SOCIAL ISSUES: THE WALL
The Wall – Interactive map exploring U.S.-Mexico border USA Today
How Americans see illegal immigration, the border wall and political compromise Pew Research Center
***BUSINESS & FINANCE
Over 300 small-business loans a day aren’t happening because of the shutdown Washington Post
***ENVIRONMENT
The Era Of Easy Recycling May Be Coming To An End FiveThirtyEight
5 key environmental impacts of the government shutdown National Geographic
***HEALTH
Hopkins Researchers ID New Biomarker for Colorectal Cancers Hopkins Medicine
Health Rankings by State America’s Health Rankings
Excessive body fat around the middle linked to smaller brain, study says CNN
Biggest jump in drug overdoses was among middle-aged women NBC News
Most Health and Wellness Advice From Instagram Influencers Is Wrong The Atlantic
Artificial Sweeteners, Not Good, Not Bad New York Times
***TRAVEL
52 Places to Go in 2019 New York Times
University of California tells students not to use WeChat, WhatsApp in China CNN
***FOOD
Nutella Quartz
One in 10 Adults Have a Food Allergy: Many More Say They Have One New York Times
Vietnamese restaurant 'Pho Keene Great' under fire for name KWCH
FDA says most food inspections halted amid shutdown The Hill
***FAMILY
Dad makes app that forces teens to reply to text news.com.au
***PSYCHOLOGY
The Brain Maps Out Ideas and Memories Like Spaces Quantam Magazine
Denver passes conversion therapy ban The Denver Channel
The Science of Dreaming Long Reads
Our obsession with taking photos is changing how we remember the past The Conversation
***PHILOSOPHY
Bertrand Russell's 10 Commandments for Living in a Healthy Democracy Open Culture
***PRODUCTIVITY & EMAIL
Why I Didn’t Answer Your Email Because my inbox will always be waiting for me, but my children will not New York Times
Don’t Reply to Your Emails The case for inbox infinity The Atlantic
Dread Opening Your Inbox? There's A New Approach To Embracing All Those Emails NPR
***RESEARCH
U.S. Officials Warn Health Researchers: China May Be Trying to Steal Your Data New York Times
China censors British academic publisher Ekklesia
Taiwanese biochemist cleared of corruption Nature
***HIGHER ED
Small-college presidents work to adapt to a changing market Inside Higher Ed
Why U.S. universities are shutting down China-funded Confucius Institutes Washington Post
The Resilience of Religion in American Higher Education’ Inside Higher Ed
Religious Colleges Praise Proposed Protections for Their Mission Bloomberg
Lawsuit goes to trial over whether retired president is owed by a Baptist school Inside Higher Ed
***HUMANITIES & STEM
Don’t Teach Your Kid to Code: Teach Them to Communicate Medium
Why We Need the Humanities in the Sciences Patheos
***TEACHING
Professors Worry About the Cost of Textbooks, but Free Alternatives Pose Their Own Problems Chronicle of Higher Education
Learning Styles: Educators v Scientists Inside Higher Ed
Empathetic Syllabi Review Exercise Faculty Focus
***STUDENT LIFE
Millions of College Students Are Going Hungry The Atlantic
Renting College Textbooks Can Be An Even Bigger Ripoff Than Buying Them Huffington Post
Managing Teenage Acne New York Times
A Northwestern Student Took Her Own Life. Is a Sorority to Blame? The Atlantic
Why some colleges don't rely on SAT or ACT scores Springfield
***ACADEMIC LIFE
Chicago State to pay $650K in faculty blog lawsuit Associated Press
Proceedings Start Against ‘Sokal Squared’ Hoax Professor Chronicle of Higher Ed
Printing Delays Present ‘New Normal’ for Academic Inside Higher Ed
UW-Oshkosh professor sues to prevent records about plagiarism investigation from being released to newspaper Wisconsin State Journal
64 lecturers at Ugandan University miss research grants over plagiarism Daily Monitor
Adulting Burnout
/“The modern Millennial, for the most part, views adulthood as a series of actions, as opposed to a state of being,” an article in Elite Daily explains. “Adulting therefore becomes a verb.” “To adult” is to complete your to-do list — but everything goes on the list, and the list never ends.
That’s one of the most ineffable and frustrating expressions of burnout: It takes things that should be enjoyable and flattens them into a list of tasks, intermingled with other obligations that should either be easily or dutifully completed. The end result is that everything, from wedding celebrations to registering to vote, becomes tinged with resentment and anxiety and avoidance.
To describe millennial burnout accurately is to acknowledge the multiplicity of our lived reality — that we’re not just high school graduates, or parents, or knowledge workers, but all of the above — while recognizing our status quo. We’re deeply in debt, working more hours and more jobs for less pay and less security, struggling to achieve the same standards of living as our parents, operating in psychological and physical precariousness, all while being told that if we just work harder, meritocracy will prevail, and we’ll begin thriving. The carrot dangling in front of us is the dream that the to-do list will end, or at least become far more manageable.
Anne Helen Petersen writing in BuzzFeed News
your brand
/Your brand is what people say about you when you're not in the room. -Jeff Bezos (born January 12, 1964)
Straight A’s won’t matter in real life
/When I was in college, I obsessed over getting straight A’s, said Adam Grant. Now that I’m a professor, “I watch in dismay” when I see students joining the same “cult of perfectionism.” They think straight A’s will provide entrée to elite graduate schools and prestigious careers. The evidence, however, says otherwise. Research across industries shows that while there’s a modest correlation between grades and job performance the first year out of college, after a few years, the difference is “trivial.” Why? “Getting straight A’s requires conformity. Having an influential career demands originality.” While straight-A students are locked in their dorm rooms or library pursuing “meaningless perfection,” their peers are developing skills that aren’t captured by grades: “creativity, leadership, and teamwork skills and social, emotional, and political intelligence.” Real career success doesn’t come from “finding the right solution to a problem—it’s more about finding the right problem to solve.” In high school Steve Jobs pulled a 2.65 GPA, J.K. Rowling had a C average at Exeter, and Martin Luther King Jr. managed only one A in four years at Morehouse College. This tells us that “underachieving in school can prepare you to overachieve in life.”
Adam Grant writing in The New York Times (as quoted in The Week Magazine)