Most middle-class Americans tend to worship their work, to work at their play, and to play at their worship. As a result, their meanings and values are distorted. Their relationships disintegrate faster than they can keep them in repair, and their life-styles resemble a cast of characters in search of a plot.

Gordon Dahl, Work, Play, and Worship in a Leisure-Oriented Society

July 18, 2019

Faith & Doubt

July 18, 2019/ Stephen Goforth

Faith does not preclude doubt. It consists of staking your life on the rumor of grace. -Michael Gerson

July 16, 2019

Articles of interest - week of July 16

July 16, 2019/ Stephen Goforth

***TECHNOLOGY

Amazon Alexa Calls Police On Man Who Was Allegedly Beating His Girlfriend WILM

VIDEO: Move Objects With Your Mind? We're Getting There, With The Help Of An Armband NPR

A Canadian bioethicist says a plan to edit human embryos to prevent deafness is "offensive" CBC

Will California’s New Bot Law Strengthen Democracy? The New Yorker

***SOCIAL MEDIA

I Was Banned From Twitter for Threatening to Kill Mr. Peanut Vice

Here’s How To Stop Data Brokers From Advertising To You On Facebook Buzzfeed News

Conservatives pretending to be suppressed by social media dominated social media Vox

Here’s how you can go back to the old Twitter layout

The Hidden Costs of Free Social Media Foundation for Economic Education

***MOBILE

Chinese app downloads surge in US Axios

Kids are spending over 30 hours a week on phones, survey finds Cnet

***PRIVACY & SECURITY

I’m a hacker, and here’s how your social media posts help me break into your company Fast Company

Google admits leaked private voice conversations CNBC

EFF Hits AT&T With Class Action Lawsuit for Selling Customers’ Location to Bounty Hunters Vice

***PRODUCING MEDIA

Podcast events are making a killing Axios

Facebook struggles to lure video creators amid intense competition Economic Times

Facebook's war to win over creators Axios

How to shoot stellar slow-motion video on your phone Wired

***INTERNET

Craigslist's Craig Newmark: 'Outrage is profitable. Most online outrage is faked for profit The Guardian

How to fix the internet, according to its pioneers Quartz

***JOURNALISM

Tools and tips for digging into Facebook from two investigative journalists The Ground Truth

Why Journalists Should Care About Collective Wisdom Immerse

ProPublica and NBC show how righteous media serve democracy Baltimore Sun

‘We’re Almost Extinct’: China’s Investigative Journalists Are Silenced Under Xi New York Times

A Nellie Bly Memorial Is Being Planned for New York City’s Roosevelt Island Mental Floss

***THE BUSINESS OF JOURNALISM

Starbucks will stop selling newspapers come September 1 New York Post

Here’s how some for-profit local news outlets are building subscriptions Harvard’s Nieman Lab

***FAKE NEWS

A digital breadcrumb trail for deepfakes Axios

Deepfakes have YouTubers worried: Vidcon offers a way to push back Cnet

People Tell Us How QAnon Destroyed Their Relationships Vice

We tell ourselves conspiracy theories in order to live The Outline

***PERSONAL GROWTH

Let Go of it Becoming (my blog)

What makes people change their lives entirely and how can we best become our true selves The Guardian

It’s Never Going to Be Perfect, So Just Get It Done New York Times

***GRAMMAR

What Happens to Spelling Bee Champions When They Grow Old? MEL Magazine

It Might Be Time to Update the Old ‘Alfa-Bravo-Charlie’ Spelling Alphabet Atlas Obcura

***WRITING & READING

The Power of a Good Sentence Why writing one isn't as easy as you think The Walrus

The Cost of Reading: the uneven burden taken by women writers in literary citizenship Longreads

***LITERATURE

New L.A. book festival LitLit announces talks by poets Yesika Salgado, Vickie Vertiz and more LA Times

***GENDER

Mississippi Politician Refuses To Let Female Reporter Travel Alone With Him NPR

The Women’s World Cup showed what women’s sports should be: This is what happens when women athletes don’t have to fight for relevance SB Nation

Robert Foster, GOP governor candidate, denies woman reporter access because of her gender Mississippi Today

***RACE & ETHNICITY ISSUES

The Dominance of the White Male Critic New York Times

You All Look Alike to Me’ is hard-wired in us UC Riverside

Hate Crime Divides School Washington Post

Aziz Ansari thinks white people are trying too hard with 'Crazy Rich Asians' CNN

Georgia landlords evicted white woman for having black guests, ACLU lawsuit alleges NBC News

How news outlets are dealing with the 'moral dimension' of covering Trump and his racist tweets CNN

'Go Back Where You Came From': The Long Rhetorical Roots Of Trump's Racist Tweets NPR

A Detroit festival charged white people $20 and black people $10, then they got hit with backlash CNN

***LEGAL ISSUES / CRIME

Does including “in my opinion” protect me from a libel or defamation suit? Student Press Law Center

DOJ Says Local Governments Need To Prepare For Ransomware Attacks NPR

A Florida cop planted meth on random drivers, police say: One lost custody of his daughter MSNBC

***RELIGION

Growth and Decline in American Religion over the Last Decade Religion in Public

The decline of the Christian bookstore Slate

Christian speaker removed from conference over church’s views on women, gays Baptist News

Behold, The Millennial Nuns HuffPost

US man accused of sex abuse at Kenyan orphanage he founded Associated Press

State Department Conference Aims To Identify Victims Of Religious Persecution NPR

How religious restrictions around the world have changed over a decade Pew Research Center

Researcher Identifies 'Oldest Handwriting of a Christian' In Ancient Papyrus Letter From Roman Egypt Newsweek

After 2016 Bible Slip, Trump Lashed Out at ‘So-Called Christians,’ Book Says New York Times

***RELIGION AND BORDER ISSUES

Dr. Dobson’s visit to the border Dobson Newsletter

James Dobson's anti-immigrant rhetoric is dangerous Sojourners

***GOOD NEWS

Rejected from culinary school because she is deaf, woman goes on to launch her own pizza empire The Week

After final cancer treatment, little girl donates birthday gifts to sick kids NBC News

Strangers come together on Twitter to find dress for girl with autism The Week

Three young brothers started a candle company to buy themselves toys. Now they donate $500 a month to the homeless Washington Post

Athlete, 66, Has Run 45 Marathons with People Who Have Disabilities: 'It's Like Their Super Bowl' People

A dying woman raised money for her own funeral: Strangers donated so much, she’s now giving away the surplus Washington Post

***REALLY?!

Drunk Yoga: fun night out or workout disaster? New York Post

Worker falls into 8-foot tank filled with liquid chocolate, paramedics find him covered from 'head-to-toe' Fox News

Metal drinking straw impales UK woman’s brain, killing her New York Post

Illinois mother accused of driving with kids on top of SUV in inflatable pool USA Today

NY father and daughter charged with armed robbery WCAX

Family Saves Octopus Stranded: Surprised by what it does the next day The Epoch Times

Man breaks into King Co. Sheriff’s Office, brings donuts, wants jail to avoid roommate Q-13

***MUSIC

Lennon or McCartney? Scientists Use Artificial Intelligence to Figure Out Who Wrote Iconic Beatles Songs Open Culture

What TikTok's Explosion Could Mean For Music NPR

***THE BUSINESS OF MEDIA

Battle for the future of Spanish-language TV Axios

***FREELANCE OPPORTUNITIES

Pitches on "Stranger Things" and other shows Bitch Media

Pitches for "Building Bridges" YES! Magazine

Long travel and design-focused stories Apartment Therapy

Pitches for beverage alcohol industry stories SevenFifty Daily

Freelance tech pieces The Daily Beast

Pitches for culture stories and features The Outline

How much money can you make on Amazon Mechanical Turk? The Hustle

***SEXUAL HARASSMENT & ASSAULT

What new research reveals about sexual predators, and why police fail to catch them The Atlantic

Harvard suspends star economics prof after sexual harassment claims New York Times

***ACADEMIC LIFE

Odds Are, Your Doctorate Will Not Prepare You for a Profession Outside Academe The Chronicle of Higher Education

Teachers Sue U.S. Over Student Loans That Weren't Forgiven NPR

***BORDER ISSUES

Immigration Officials Use Secretive Gang Databases to Deny Migrant Asylum Claims Propublica

Concern Grows Over Plan To Scale Back Program That Protects Military Families From Deportation NPR

Border crisis conditions for migrants, according to a lawyer who’s volunteered there for years Slate

Border Patrol Agents Are Passing Around A Commemorative Coin Mocking Care for Migrant Kids Propublica

3-Year-Old Asked To Pick Parent In Attempted Family Separation, Her Parents Say NPR

The US is quietly opening shelters for babies and young kids: One has 12 children and no mothers Reveal News

California Set To Expand Medicaid To Undocumented Young Adults NPR

***BUSINESS & FINANCE

Branding has a moral responsibility Fast Company

Digital Tax Passed In France Is Aimed At U.S. Tech Giants NPR

The future of work in America McKinsey

How much money can you make on Amazon Mechanical Turk? The Hustle

***ENVIRONMENT

Trees emit a surprisingly large amount of methane Wired

These rare blue clouds could be headed your way PopSci

Radioactivity in parts of the Marshall Islands is far higher than Chernobyl, study says Wired

***HEALTH

The meat-allergy tick also carries a mystery killer virus Wired

Urinary Tract Infections Affect Millions: The Cures Are Faltering New York Times

Is my insomnia all in my head? Why my brain might be sleeping without me knowing Telegraph

In US 1st, baby is born from dead donor’s transplanted womb Associated Press

***TRAVEL

How to Fall Asleep on a Plane Life Hacker

Attendance falling at American Landmarks Politico

How to Get Through Airport Security Faster Life Hacker

***SPORTS & GAMES

Why Do Sports Fans Watch, and Rewatch, Injury Footage? New York Times

Robot umpires: MLB is testing technology in Atlantic League Washington Post

Poker Bot Beats The Professionals At 6-Player Texas Hold 'Em NPR

Chess Grandmaster Igors Rausis Caught Cheating Bleacher Report

We Watched 906 Foul Balls To Find Out Where The Most Dangerous Ones Land FiveThirtyEight

***FOOD

Hershey’s Co. sued over 'misleading' White Reese’s packaging Fox News

When Natural Disasters Strike, Operation BBQ Swoops In With Relief — And Ribs NPR

***ANIMALS

Heroic dog saves sleeping deputy constable from Montgomery County house fire ABC-13

Drunk man sends injured baby bird to wildlife rescue center in an Uber WFSB

Why Dogs Now Play a Big Role in Human Cancer Research Wired

Tourists Plays Around With An Octopus, Don't Realize It's One Of Australia's Most Venomous Species Digg

***SCIENCE

Why we see the colors of faces differently than other things Wired

NASA drops insane map of 4,000 planets outside our solar system CNET

We Have The First-Ever Images of Molecules Changing Their Charge State Science Alert

***PSYCHOLOGY & NEUROSCIENCE

30 intro psych textbooks: the vast majority defined or explained statistical significance inaccurately Psychological Science

REM sleep silences the siren of the brain NIN

***CHINA

Google Working On AI In China Has Billionaire Peter Thiel, Others Raising Major Concerns Media Post

China Box Office Drops in First Half Despite 14.5 Percent Jump in Hollywood Revenue Hollywood Reporter

***POLITICS

Trump campaign uses stock video pretending it portrays supporters Associated Press

Kantar Forecasts $6 Billion in Political Ad Spending for 2019-2020 Election Cycle Kantar Media

Huge Turnout Is Expected in 2020. So Which Party Would Benefit? New York Times

***RESEARCH

Here’s how to deal with failure, say senior scientists Nature Index

Scandal-weary Swedish government takes over research-fraud investigations Nature

The risk of embarrassing, high-profile retractions also prevents data from being published that could correct the published literature Wiley

Research publications: does piling them high sell them short? Times Higher Education

Replicator Degrees of Freedom Allow Publication of Misleading 'Failures to Replicate' SSRN

Reproducibility crisis, the scientific method, and the quality of published studies: Untangling the knot Wiley

Rules to stamp out export of unethical research practices to poorer countries gaining momentum Times Higher Education

Inside a “Fake” Conference: A Journey Into Predatory Science Technology Networks

The greatest threat to medical science is not fabrication of results but ‘presentational fraud'” BMJ

***HIGHER ED

Bachelor’s Degree Movers FlowingData

Univ of Texas will give full scholarships for tuition and fees to in-state students with household incomes of $65,000 or less Statesman

Hackers Demand $2 Million From Monroe College Inside Higher Ed

Colleges Are Shutting Down, and Yankton Was a Precursor The Atlantic

More Latinx Students, Stagnant Latinx President Inside Higher Ed

Sorry, Headhunters, but the Healthiest Presidential Searches Are Open The Chronicle of Higher Ed

In the U.K., a Surge in Chinese Applicants Inside Higher Ed

Accreditor approves Ashford U's nonprofit conversion Education Dive

The Downside of Reduced Student Borrowing Inside Higher Ed

2 Indiana virtual schools received lots of public money: Now, the state wants $40 million of it back Washington Post

5 Years Later, Grand Valley Resolves Federal Complaint Inside Higher Ed

***CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS

Michael W. Smith, Kevin Jonas to start music center, label at Liberty University Religious News Service

He was hired to teach at Olivet Nazarene University: And then someone read his book Chicago Tribune

PLNU students serve children in Philippines Church of the Nazarene

***TEACHING

Survey shows nearly half of students distracted by technology Inside Higher Ed

5 Key Aspects of Teaching Innovation In 2019 Entrepreneur

***STUDENT MEDIA

Virginia school district orders high school student journalists to delete a video report documenting the school's poor conditions Pilot Online

Study: Millennials Worry About Media's Impact On Democracy Media Post

***STUDENT LIFE

Amazon fined a college student $3,800 for returning a rented textbook 4 days late Business Insider

Teens are abandoning hyper-produced personalities for people who seem just like them The Atlantic

Student Loans Are The Hardest On These Borrowers NPR

July 15, 2019

Let Go of It

July 15, 2019/ Stephen Goforth

At some point, we must remind ourselves, any changes we make to a creation no longer make it better but just different (and sometimes worse). Recognizing that inflection point — the point at which our continuing to rework our work reaches a law of diminishing returns — is one of the hardest skills to learn, but also one of the most necessary. Sometimes our first attempt truly is best; sometimes it takes seventeen attempts to really nail it. But overworking something is just as bad as failing to polish it.

When I'm immersed in the creative process, nothing feels more important to me at that moment than the thing which I'm creating. And though that sense of importance is what drives my passion and discipline (which in turn is what makes creating it possible at all), it also represents the source of the painful sense of urgency for the final result be perfect. Forcing myself, then, to recognize that in the grand scheme of life no one thing is so important to me or anyone else that failing to make it perfect will permanently impair my ability to be happy is what frees me from the need for it to be perfect. Freed then from the need to attain the unattainable, I can instead focus on enjoying the challenge of simply doing my best. Because if we allow ourselves to remain at the mercy of our desire for perfection, not only will the perfect elude us, so will the good.

Alex Lickerman writing in Psychology Today

July 11, 2019

Seizing the Initiative

July 11, 2019/ Stephen Goforth

Everything in this world conspires to put you on the defensive. At work, your superiors may want the glory for themselves and will discourage you from taking the imitative. People are constantly pushing and attacking you, keeping you in react mode. You are continually reminded of your limitations and what you cannot hope to accomplish. You are made to feel guilty for this and that. Such defensiveness on your part can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Before anything, you need to liberate yourself from this feeling. By acting boldly, before others are ready, by moving to seize the initiative, you create your own circumstances rather than simply waiting for what life brings you. Your initial push alters the situation, on your terms.

Robert Greene, 33 Strategies of War

July 10, 2019

rejoicing

July 10, 2019/ Stephen Goforth

There is not one blade of grass, there is no colour in this world that is not intended to make us rejoice. -John Calvin (born July 10, 1509)

July 09, 2019

Articles of interest - July 8

July 09, 2019/ Stephen Goforth

***TECHNOLOGY

Over 80% of facial recognition suspects flagged by London's Met Police were innocent, report says ABC News

Forecasters Caution 5G Will Interfere With Gathering Weather Data NPR

In the age of deepfakes, could virtual actors put humans out of business? The Guardian

***BIG DATA & AI

Soon, satellites will be able to watch you everywhere all the time MIT Technology Review

Artificial intelligence is coming for our faces Wired

Brown University researchers show ability to store and retrieve image data on molecules smaller than human DNA New Scientist

A new business in small satellites orbiting the Earth Economist

The strange link between the human mind and quantum physics BBC

Not all weather satellites are equal Wired

Will Machine-Generated Books Accelerate our Consumption of Scholarly Literature? Scholarly Kitchen

Using AI to speed up the processing of space images Where no neural network has gone before Economist

What is the Blockchain Really, and Should You Care? Scholarly Kitchen

Robot uses machine learning to harvest lettuce University of Cambridge

***SOCIAL MEDIA

Instagram is sweet and sort of boring—but the ads! Wired

‘Influencer’ bride tries to pay wedding photographer with exposure but fails spectacularly Indy

Instagram will now ask you to think twice before posting profanities The Next Web

Twitter bans 'dehumanizing language' aimed at religious groups Mashable

***MOBILE

Heedless smartphone zombies keep stepping out in front of cars Economist

***JOURNALISM

Watch A Reporter Block A Man From Entering Her Shot Like A Boss Digg

Journalism Job Cuts Haven’t Been This Bad Since the Recession Bloomberg

Behind the scenes with The Weather Channel’s mixed reality broadcasting Immersive Shooter

As the World Heats Up, the Climate for News Is Changing, Too New York Times

This is a great example for a statistics class, or a class on survey sampling, or a political science class Stat Modeling

***FAKE NEWS

Fact check: Trump promotes fake Ronald Reagan quote about him CNN

***PRIVACY & SECURITY

How to protect your privacy in Chrome Washington Post

Yes, your emails are being tracked: Here's how to stop it Mashable

The state DMVs allowing federal investigative and immigration agents to scan hundreds of millions of Americans' faces without their knowledge or consent Washington Post

Trick those #!@% spam calls with a fake phone number CNET

A City Paid a Hefty Ransom to Hackers. But Its Pains Are Far From Over New York Times

Zoom zero-day vulnerability could let websites turns your Mac's cameras without permission The Next Web

***PRODUCING MEDIA

How stock photography is made Vox

***INTERNET

The internet has made dupes—and cynics—of us all Wired

***PERSONAL GROWTH

Be a Poet Becoming (my blog)

***GRAMMAR

How to Use a Semicolon Correctly Life Hacker

Is an emoji a word or a gesture? Both Quartz

***WRITING & READING

How technology is changing the craft of screenwriting BBC

Microsoft's Ebook apocalypse shows the dark side of DRM Wired

The best books to read at every age, from 1 to 100 Washington Post

New ways of selling books clash with France’s old pricing rules Economist

Papermaking master a gem in a digital age Daily Iowan

10 of the Best-Selling Books in History (Minus Religious Texts) Mental Floss

The unlikely rise of book fairs in the Middle East Economist

An interactive map of over 5,000 book covers, organized by machine learning Pudding

My Latinx students write what they know. And their words are powerful LA Times

***LITERATURE

Carrying a Single Life: On Literature and Translation New York Review of Books

Nigerian Schoolgirls' Abduction Told In 'Beneath The Tamarind Tree' NPR

Brenda Maddox, biographer of Nora Barnacle and others in literature, dies at 87 Boston Globe

***LANGUAGE

Want a truly mind-expanding experience? Learn another language The Guardian

***POETRY

She wrote a poem about a vagina. It landed her in jail CNN

Here’s how to arrange the poems in your poetry manuscript The Press-Enterprise

Watch Your Poetry With The Visible Poetry Project Book Riot

***GENDER

Firefighter whose male colleagues told her she was 'too weak' now carries THEM out of burning buildings after hitting the gym Daily Mail

It could take 118 years for female computer scientists to match publishing rates of male colleagues Science Mag

***LEGAL ISSUES

Emojis increasingly appear in court cases and judges struggle with how to interpret them KTVQ

Dueling fake "independent" websites leads to unclean hands finding, but some injunctive relief Tushnet Blog

***CRIME & COURTS

FBI Records Could Have Solved A Civil Rights Cold Case. Now It's Too Late NPR

Professor faces 219-year prison sentence for sending missile chip tech to China The Verge

The Supreme Court wraps up its term, inching to the right Economist

Red Oak Man Wins Settlement After Being Arrested for Criticizing Police WHOT-TV

***RELIGION

Following plagiarism charges and multiple retractions, a priest resigns from a position at a television network Church Militant

Mormon and the tricky process of leaving the Church The Verge

Pope moves America's 'first televangelist' closer to sainthood Reuters

Pastor builds monster truck for Jesus AL.com

When Philip K. Dick turned to Christianity: Soon after he became a countercultural hero Salon

How California’s megachurches changed Christian culture Durango Herald

Poll: Americans rarely seek guidance from clergy Religious News Service

U.S. Confidence in Organized Religion Remains Low Gallup

Study: White Evangelicals Least Likely to Say the U.S. Has a ‘Responsibility’ to Accept Refugees Relevant Magazine

***RELIGION AND POLITICS

A matter of faith: Democrats embrace religion in campaign Associated Press

The Religious Right is Still Fanning Fear of California LGBTQ Resolution Right Wing Watch

The Deepening Crisis in Evangelical Christianity Support for Trump comes at a high cost for Christian witness (opinion) The Atlantic

***CHRISTIAN BOOKS

A Christian bestseller (and CT Book of the Year) was targeted by a major counterfeiting scheme Christianity Today

The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven changed Christian publishing forever—and tore a family apart Slate

***GOOD NEWS

New York police went to a Whole Foods store about a suspected shoplifter: Then they paid for her groceries NBC News

Beloved 'singing doctor' who sang to 8,000 babies after delivery gets heartfelt honor GMA

How one couple's years-long battle against leukemia led to happily ever after ABC News

Woman Paints Her Children's Drawings And Transforms Them Into Incredible Pieces Of Art Digg

***REALLY?!

Watch 32,000 Dominos Fall in an Extremely Satisfying Way Mental Floss

13-year-old girl's rigorous study finds hand dryers can hurt children's ears WKYC

10 Scientific Benefits of Kissing Mental Floss

***ART & DESIGN

User Inyerface: All of the worst UI practices in one evil form

The 5 Top Destinations for Art and Design Lovers in August Architechural Digest

***MUSIC

Walkman turns 40 today: How listening to music changed over the years Business Insider

Brazilian bossa nova pioneer Joao Gilberto dies at 88 Associated Press

***THE BUSINESS OF MEDIA

The End of an Era: MAD Magazine Will Publish Its Last Issue With Original Content This Fall Open Culture

***SEXUAL HARASSMENT & ASSAULT

Lawsuit by student accused of sex assault seeks class-action status against Michigan State Detroit Press Press

A bookkeeper in Indonesia who recorded her boss’s lewd phone call as proof she was being harassed must serve at least 6 months in prison for distributing obscene material New York Times

University barred from punishing student in unusual Title IX case Inside Higher Ed

***BORDER ISSUES

Jurors refuse to convict activist facing 20 years for helping migrants The Guardian

Federal Agents Joked About Migrant Deaths, Propublica Reports NPR

Hispanic evangelical group offers to help migrant children Baptist Standard

A Pastor Who Was Put On A Watch List After Working With Immigrants Is Suing The US BuzzFeed News

Fiona Apple donating two years worth of song's royalties to help pay migrants' legal fees The Hill

Hispanic evangelical group offers to help migrant children Baptist Standard

***BUSINESS & FINANCE

The art of selling scent in the internet age Fast Company

How accessible technology is overcoming barriers in the workplace Verdict

***ENVIRONMENT

The Secret Language of Trees: A Charming Animated Lesson Explains How Trees Share Information with Each Other Open Culture

Planting more trees could suck up a huge share of carbon emissions MIT Technology Review

The California coast is disappearing under the rising sea. Our choices are grim Los Angeles Times

***HEALTH

What the Measles Epidemic Really Says About America The Atlantic

Can Sunscreen Really Repair Your DNA? Wired

Antivaxxers turn to homeschooling to avoid protecting their kids’ health Are Technica

Man dies after adding a teaspoon of caffeine powder to protein shake New York Post

***HEALTH RESEARCH & TECHNOLOGY

An Italian clan’s curious insensitivity to pain has piqued the interest of geneticists seeking a new understanding of how to treat physical suffering Smithsonian Magazine

Alexa could detect whether you're having a heart attack, study suggests USA Today

***TRAVEL

Strange Facts About the U.S. Condé Nast Traveler CNN

***SPORTS & GAMES

The future of sports gambling The Week

Unflappable. Unapologetic. Unequaled: The greatest U.S. women's soccer team ever Sports Illustrated

***FOOD

Woman Who Licked Tub Of Blue Bell Ice Cream In Viral Video Could Face 20 Years In Prison 5 News

Italian Chefs React In Relative Horror At YouTubers Making Pesto Dig

Scientists Engineer A Smooth, Beanless Coffee NPR

The Changing American Diet Flowing Data

***ANIMALS

This couple took engagement photos with dogs And cats In need of homes Huffington Post

Why Are Octopuses So Smart? The Atlantic

***PSYCHOLOGY

Catholic medical journal pulls paper on conversion therapy over statistical problems Retraction Watch

The all-too-understandable urge to buy a better brain Vox

***NEUROSCIENCE

Neuroscience has found that gestures are not merely important as tools of expression but as guides of cognition and perception Quanta Magazine

Could Lab-Grown Brains Develop Consciousness? Singularity Hub

Does Consciousness Exist Outside of the Brain? Psychology Today

Scientists are giving dead brains new life New York Times

How our brain sculpts experience in line with our expectations Aeon Essays

***PHILOSOPHY

Plagiarizing articles in philosophy Wiley Online

***HISTORY

Stravinsky’s “Illegal” Arrangement of “The Star Spangled Banner” (1944) Open Culture

When Charlie Chaplin Entered a Chaplin Look-Alike Contest & Came in 20th Place Open Culture

Trump's 'Revolutionary War Airports' Memes and Reactions eBaum’s World

Review of The Weather Machine By Andrew Blum Economist

Florida principal refused to call the Holocaust a fact Palm Beach Post

***CHINA

Inside the fight for Hong Kong Macleans

China Is Forcing Tourists to Install Text-Stealing Malware at its Border Vice

Taiwan’s Status is a Geopolitical Absurdity The Atlantic

***POLITICS

Some Trump supporters thought NPR tweeted ‘propaganda’: It was the Declaration of Independence Washington Post

Reactionary nationalism is a challenge to liberalism--and conservatism Economist

***RESEARCH

The researcher behind the smartphone “horns” study sells posture pillows Quartz

Nature says it wants to publish replication attempts. So what happened when a group of authors submitted one to Nature Neuroscience? Retraction Watch

A plant scientist has sued his university and 4 female students, accusing them of leaking a confidential investigation report to the media Bozeman Daily Chronicle

Statisticians clamor for retraction of paper by Harvard researchers they say uses a “nonsense statistic” Retraction Watch

***HIGHER ED

Why Is There So Much Saudi Money in American Universities? New York Times

Demand for Campus Child Care Is Growing: Choosing How to Provide It Can Be Fraught (sub. req’d) The Chronicle of Higher Education

The Education Deserts of Rural America The Atlantic

Guilford College is changing the way it does most everything in an effort to stem its enrollment decline: But officials say it is also leaning in to its mission Inside Higher Ed

The Education Deserts of Rural America The Atlantic

Study: Millions of U.S. Students Are Without Home Internet Gov Tech

DeVos rescinds rule forcing colleges to disclose debt and salary data CNBC

ASU tries to boost Degree Completion With Blockchain Inside Higher Ed

What universities can learn from one of science’s biggest frauds Nature

Grand Canyon University spends $21.6M to buy church near Phoenix campus Arizona Central

Are Small Private Colleges Worth the Money? The Atlantic

Author in her new book discusses the challenges colleges, particularly religious institutions, face in mitigating sexual assault Inside Higher Ed

Rejection of LGBTQ student group leads to a fight at "unambiguously Christian" Baylor Texas Tribune

USC to pay UC San Diego $50M over Alzheimer's research Washington Post

***ACADEMIC LIFE

New study finds “important deficiencies” in university reports of misconduct Retraction Watch

I Help People Cheat Their Way to Getting PhDs Vice

***STUDENT LIFE

The ‘Mickey Mouse’ degrees and universities that actually reduce your earning potential Telegraph

Millennials Rely On Parents For Financial Help, Study Shows NPR

July 09, 2019

Anchoring

July 09, 2019/ Stephen Goforth

You lower your anxiety about uncertainty by producing a number, then you “anchor” on it, like an object to hold on to in the middle of a vacuum.

Ask someone to provide you with the last four digits of his social security number. Then ask him to estimate the number of dentists in Manhattan. You will find that by making him aware of the four-digit number, you elicit an estimate that is correlated with it.

We use reference points in our heads, say sales projections, and start building beliefs around them because less mental effort is needed to compare an idea to a reference point than to evaluate it in the absolute. We cannot work without a point of reference.

So the introduction of a reference point in the forecaster’s mind will work wonders. This is no different from a starting point in a bargaining episode: you open with high number (“I want a million for this house” the bidder will answer “only eight-fifty” – the discussion will be determined by that initial level.

Nassim Taleb, The Black Swain

July 08, 2019

Be a Poet

July 08, 2019/ Stephen Goforth

In 2016, educational psychologists, Denis Dumas and Kevin Dunbar found that people who try to solve creative problems are more successful if they behave like an eccentric poet than a rigid librarian. Given a test in which they have to come up with as many uses as possible for any object (e.g. a brick) those who behave like eccentric poets have superior creative performance. This finding holds even if the same person takes on a different identity. When in a creative deadlock, try this exercise of embodying a different identity. It will likely get you out of your own head, and allow you to think from another person’s perspective. I call this psychological halloweenism.

Srini Pillay writing in the Harvard Business Review

July 04, 2019

what makes you come alive

July 04, 2019/ Stephen Goforth

Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.

July 03, 2019

The Promotion Curse

July 03, 2019/ Stephen Goforth

The records of almost 40,000 salespeople across 131 firms were studied and researchers found that companies have a strong tendency to promote the best sales people. Convincing others to buy goods and services is a useful skill, requiring charisma and persistence. But, as the authors point out, these are not the same capabilities as the strategic planning and administrative competence needed to lead a sales team. The research then looked at what happened after these super-salespeople were promoted. Their previous sales performance was actually a negative indicator of managerial success.

People get promoted until they reach a level when they stop enjoying their jobs. At this point, it is not just their competence that is affected; it is their happiness as well. The trick to avoiding this curse is to stick to what you like doing. Beware the curse of overwork and dissatisfaction.

The Economist’s Bartleby column

July 02, 2019

where you slipped

July 02, 2019/ Stephen Goforth

Do not look where you fell, but where you slipped. -African Proverb

July 01, 2019

‘We’ couples

July 01, 2019/ Stephen Goforth

A University of California study showed that couples who use pronouns like "we," "our" and "us" showed less stress and were more positive toward each other. Those found to be less satisfied in their marriages used pronouns like "me," "I" and "you." Happy couples often speak in a "we." As in, "we had a nice time at the party" and "we had a major plumbing problem at the house last week." The idea is that unconsciously they've formed a sense of being a part of a team and life is happening to both of them.

Rather than waste energy blaming each other they see a problem as something they both need to solve. So they divide tasks, brainstorm, resolve and move forward. LIfe is better when the blame is minimized and the challenge (whatever it may be) is addressed by both people.

M. Gary Neuman writing in the Huffington Post

June 29, 2019

education

June 29, 2019/ Stephen Goforth

The chief object of education is not to learn things but to unlearn things. -GK Chesterton

June 27, 2019

the Resistance

June 27, 2019/ Stephen Goforth

Are you a writer who doesn’t write, a painter who doesn’t paint, an entrepreneur who never starts a venture? Then you know what Resistance is. -Steven Pressfield

June 26, 2019

The Adventure Risk

June 26, 2019/ Stephen Goforth

Andre Gide once said, "One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time." Explorers of new worlds will always have times of ambiguity where they wonder if they are getting anywhere and whether the voyage was really worth it.

Stephen Goforth

Becoming

ideas that challenge / comfort / inspire

An easy fix

studying religion

Articles of Interest - July 22

Work & Play