Ideas that challenge / comfort / inspire
Stephen Goforth
If I had only…
forgotten future greatness
and looked at the green things and the buildings
and reached out to those around me
and smelled the air
and ignored the forms and the self-styled obligations
and heard the rain on the roof
and put my arms around my wife
… and it's not too late.
Hugh Prather, Notes To Myself
For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong. -H. L. Mencken
Consider that two people can hold incompatible beliefs based on the exact same data. Does this mean that there are possible families of explanations and that each of these can be equally perfect and sound? Certainly not. One may have a million ways to explain things, but the true explanation is unique, whether or not it is within our reach.
In a famous argument, the logician WV Quine showed that there exist families of logically consistent interpretations and theories that can match a give series of facts. Such insight should warn us that mere absence of nonsense may not be sufficient to make something true.
Nassim Taleb, The Black Swain
Few study religion to learn how to live – many search it for justification for the way they already live.
***JOURNALISM
Working Across Disciplines: A Manifesto for Happy Newsrooms Nieman Reports Harvard’s Nieman Reports
Judge quashes SFPD warrant used to search journalist’s phone San Francisco Chronicle
Show your work: The new terms for trust in journalism PressThink
Trump’s New Favorite Channel Employs Kremlin-Paid Journalist Daily Beast
Trust in News is Correlated to Distribution Modes Monday Note
10 tips for covering white supremacy and far-right extremists Journalists Resources
***PRODUCING MEDIA
App for journalists: Voice Record Pro, for transcribing audio interviews Journalism .co
The best free screen recorders of 2019 Digital Trends
Facebook Video Best Practices Checklist Social Media Today
Twitter’s Head of Content Shares What Video Ads Work Best Story Hunter
***THE BUSINESS OF JOURNALISM
How a GateHouse-Gannett merger would work Poynter
To Slow Decline, Newspaper Print Editions Should Act Their Age (opinion) Editor & Publisher
***FAKE NEWS
The Guy Who Started the Area 51 Madness Did It as a Joke — and Now He’s Freaking Out Vice
Man punched by Buzz Aldrin still says moon landing was fake USA Today
Deepfakes Pose Increasing Legal and Ethical Issues for Hollywood Hollywood Reporter
When It Comes To Vaccines And Autism, Why Is It Hard To Refute Misinformation? NPR
Deepfake videos pose a threat, but ‘dumbfakes’ may be worse Associated Press
Send a Flat Earth Believer off the edge! Go Fund Me
Anti-extremism software to be used to tackle vaccine disinformation The Guardian
***TECHNOLOGY
Kids Think A TV Is An iPad, Don't Understand Why It Doesn't Pause Digg
Flame-throwing drone The Verge
The Navy spent $30B and 16 years to fight Iran with a littoral combat ship that doesn't work NBC News
***BIG DATA & AI
P-values are inherently confusing for many people but can be an important part of data scientist decision-making (just don’t rely too heavily on them) Medium
P-values are a bit like medical needles: they’re intended for personal use and it’s dangerous to share them Toward Data Science
How quickly can AI solve a Rubik’s Cube? In less time than it took you to read this sentence Washington Post
This AI seamlessly removes moving objects from videos The Next Web
30 intro psych textbooks: the vast majority defined or explained statistical significance inaccurately Psychological Science
***SOCIAL MEDIA
Seven ways journalists can up their social media game European Journalism Observatory
Instagram Slowly Tests Hiding The Number Of Likes On A Post NPR
***PERSONAL GROWTH
Your Greater Goal Becoming (my blog)
***WRITING & READING
The Art Of Writing Bad Ads Medium
What If MFA Programs Turn Good Writers Into Bad Ones? The Walrus
***LANGUAGE
Google Translate’s camera can now automatically detect languages Venturebeat
He said, ze said: Faith Salie on preferred gender pronouns CBS News
The internet is changing language less than curmudgeons fear Economist
***LITERATURE
Buchi Emecheta: Google Doodle celebrates British-Nigerian writer of 20 novels about race and gender Independent
Rediscovering Natalia Ginzburg The New Yorker
***POETRY
Tiger Poets: ‘It’s about … being able to see what you have went through, and what you overcame’ WHYY
How poetry can transform your school Tes
The moon as metaphor and the poetry of Apollo 11 Tampa Bay Times
Modern poetry’s sentimentality problem New Statesman
If people can’t express anguish with poetry, then what’s the country coming to: Harsh Mander on Miya poets National Herald India
How Poetry Can Help Communicate Science Scientific American
'Offensive' poem about Condoleezza Rice stokes New Hampshire verse rift The Guardian
Science and Poetry: More Similar Than You Think WGBH
***POETS
Audre Lorde’s Berlin The New York Times
'I will never hear my father's voice': Ilya Kaminsky on deafness and escaping the Soviet Union The Guardian
Omar Sakr and the poetry of displacement and dispossession SMH
Twenty-Four Poems in 24 Hours: A writer’s crazy journey into the depths of poetic inspiration Mauitime
A look at Mary Pat Shely’s poetry Winchester Sun
A conversation with FSU graduate and poet Dorothy Chan about 'Revenge of the Asian Woman' Tallahassee Democrat
Poet finds higher spirit, sensuality in nature and relays that impact through her work CBC
***GENDER
The disagreement over scholarly debate about gender identity rages on Inside Higher Ed
Martina Navratilova on Megan Rapinoe and the Trajectory of Gay Women in Sports The New Yorker
***RACE & ETHNICITY ISSUES
13 Philadelphia officers to be fired over racist, offensive Facebook posts NBC
The Rise of the Chinese-American Right National Review
Trump's Remarks Against Congresswomen Are Not The Only Example Of The 'Go Back' Taunt NPR
In a recently resurfaced recording, Trump proposed a white-versus-black-contestant season of 'The Apprentice' Business Insider
***FREE SPEECH
HBO Gets to Argue Michael Jackson Estate Is Violating First Amendment Hollywood Reporter
1st Amendment Challenge Over DMCA's Anti-Circumvention Provisions Can Move Forward Tech Dirt
This article could be illegal in Arkansas Reporter’s Committee for the Freedom of the Press
***LEGAL ISSUES
Gigi Hadid Beats Instagram Post Copyright Lawsuit Hollywood Reporter
Verizon Not Liable for Employee Theft of Customer’s Nude Photos Bloomberg
Court rules Andy Warhol's Prince Portraits are fair use The 1709 Blog
Marvel Finally Beats a Lawsuit Over the 'Iron Man 3' Poster Hollywood Reporter
***CRIME & COURTS
The Village Where Every Cop Has Been Convicted of Domestic Violence ProPublica
Simulators teach police and their critics when to shoot The Economist
Why Don’t Police Catch Serial Rapists? The Atlantic
***BORDER ISSUES
A Border Patrol Agent Reveals What It’s Really Like to Guard Migrant Children Propublica
Marine Corps veteran denied entry to US for citizenship interview The Hill
New Asylum Rule Leaves Migrants In Tijuana Confused And Desperate KPBS
If We All Left to “Go Back Where We Came From” Flowing Data
A restaurant in the North Carolina city where Trump held his rally is donating to aid immigrants CNN
Immigration Police Detain, Free 3 young girls who are US Citizens after holding them for 12 hours in an attempt to force their parents to Chicago Sun-Times
***EMOJIS
The 🙃Emoji Is The Breezy, Nihilist Face Of 2019 Buzzfeed News
Emoji Mashup Bot gives life to unidentifiable emotions Daily Doot
***PRIVACY & SECURITY
Google and Facebook Are Quietly Tracking You On Porn Websites New York Times
How Americans — Some Knowingly, Some Unwittingly — Helped China's Surveillance Grow NPR
Here's The Most Complete Map So Far Of Amazon's Ring Camera Surveillance Partnerships With Local Police BuzzFeed News
Google Chrome Update Will Close 'Loophole' That Tipped Sites Off to Your Incognito Mode Gizmodo
Data Leak Warning Issued To Millions Of Google Chrome And Firefox Users Forbes
***RELIGION
A Closer Look at How Religious Restrictions Have Risen Around the World Pew Research Center
The Dark Reality Of Celebrity Endorsed Mega-Churches Refinery29
Church And Clergy Have Fallen Out Of Favor, New Polls Show NPR
Why does God need public records? In Alabama, that’s a real question AL.com
***GOOD NEWS
Student walks 20 miles to new job – so CEO gifts him a car New York Post
Wedding photographer remakes album for couple who lost everything in Camp Fire KCRA
'Refused to let warrior be buried alone': Hundreds attend Vietnam veteran's funeral in Niles South Bend Tribune
Italian Olympic swimming champ saves drowning tourist New York Daily News
***REALLY?!
City hopes ‘Baby Shark’ song will drive homeless away Miami Herald
Nebraska woman claims Spider-Man sculpture is ‘a hate crime against the church’ WQAD
A Florida woman was fined $100,000 for a dirty pool and overgrown grass USA Today
Canadian Police Accidentally Livestream Double Homicide Press Conference Using Facebook's Cat Filter TIME
***ART & DESIGN
Mind-Bending Optical Illusion Murals Turn Buildings into 3D Abstractions My Modern Met
The 50 Ugliest College Campuses Complex
***MUSIC
An Iowa agency director emailed Tupac lyrics to 4,300 employees. He was asked to resign USA Today
Wedding photographer remakes album for couple who lost everything in Camp Fire KCRA
Beatles Songs Re-Imagined as Vintage Book Covers Open Culture
From Beyoncé to Bob Dylan, why music docs are all over our screens The Guardian
Songs of America: Patriotism, Protest, and the Music That Made a Nation The Week
***FILM
When Harry Met Sally' and the 'High-Maintenance' Woman The Atlantic
***FREELANCE OPPORTUNITIES
Freelance Pitches LAist Studios
Freelance pitches Medium's Zora magazine
Freelance writers A well-funded L.A. startup
Freelance pitches The Cut
Freelance culture stories Texas Monthly
Media-related freelance pitches Columbia Journalism Review
Mandarin freelance writer Culture Trip, L.A.
***SOCIAL ISSUES
The global business supply chain relies on 16 million slaves Quartz
Record 70.8 Million People Forcibly Displaced Globally Last Year Bloomberg
Most Americans See American Dream as Achievable Gallup
***BUSINESS & FINANCE
A 40-Year Scientific Study Reveals the Richest People Are Never the Most Talented (and Why That's a Really Good Thing) Inc
What your spending habits say about who you are CBS News
He Built A $1 Billion Business Where All 700 Employees Work Remotely Forbes
***ENVIRONMENT
Visualizing Just How Much Hotter Climate Change Will Make Your City Digg
Restoring forests may be one of our most powerful weapons in fighting climate change Vox
***HEALTH
Opioid Distribution And Sales Data Release Sheds Light On Opioid Prescribing NPR
When it comes to Sunscreens, the SPF isn’t as critical as you think Curiosity
There Is No Such Thing as a Sugar Rush Elemental
Vast Majority Of Dietary Supplements Don’t Improve Heart Health or Put Off Death Hopkins Medicine
Drug Overdose Deaths Drop in U.S. for First Time Since 1990 New York Times
The future of fitness is together but alone The Verge
2 Nurses In Tennessee Preach 'Diabetes Reversal' NPR
Christian publisher changes name after cannabis confusion The Guardian
Can gut infection trigger Parkinson’s disease? Nouvelles
***TRAVEL
A Series of Maps Reveals the Difference in How Cities are Perceived by Tourists and Locals Arch Daily
Airlines are finally fixing the middle seat Fast Company
5 Themed Road Trips You Can Take This Summer Mental Floss
***FOOD
The Apple ready to disrupt the industry California Sunday
The Top 10 Cities with the Most Ice Cream Shops Per Capita Yahoo News
Nestle Creates New Chocolate—With No Added Sugar Bloomberg
Arkansas is the latest state to ban calling veggie burgers “veggie burgers” Vox
Restaurants Under Strain As Price Of Avocados Nearly Triples NPR
***FAMILY
Surprising New Names Top 2019’s Popularity List Nameberry
***ANIMALS
Goats can distinguish emotions from each other's calls The Guardian
12-year-old boy designs bow ties to help pets get adopted NBC
Scientists discover Snowball the cockatoo has 14 distinct dance moves (video) The Guardian
***SCIENCE
A material way to make Mars habitable Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences Harvard
***PSYCHOLOGY
Who Invented the Therapy in Those Joseph Nicolosi Books Banned by Amazon? Throckmorton Blog
New bill allows Oregon students to take 'mental health days' NBC News
The mysterious case of the man who draws in his sleep BBC
***PHILOSOPHY
Millennials, moral relativism and Iris Murdoch Religious News Service
***ETHICS
The lost art of ethical decision making Tech Republic
Microsoft joins project on ethical artificial intelligence Phys.org
***CHINA
China’s economic growth slides — and that could be bad news for U.S. LA Times
***POLITICS
An escalation in America’s slide toward fascism Huffington Post
How Political Science Became Irrelevant Chronicle of Higher Ed
***RESEARCH
The F-word, or how to fight fires in the research literature AHRECS
Why are there more and more retractions? RTS (Swiss Radio)
Journal criticised for study claiming sun is causing global warming New Science
100 rules for publishing in top journals Nature Index
Why it’s so hard to reform peer review Mind Matters
***RESEARCH: THE REPLICATION CRISIS
Fixing health care’s replication crisis is important for researchers and patients Stat News
Reproducibility fix: Easy in principle, hard in practice Bio World
***HIGHER ED
Education publisher Pearson to phase out print textbooks BBC
Hackers breach 62 US colleges by exploiting ERP vulnerability ZDnet
A Legendary Scientist Sounds Off on the Trouble With STEM Chronicle of Higher Ed
The value of education is not what you think (opinion) The Week
***CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS
The Jonas Brothers’ Dad is working with Liberty University Huffington Post
Annie Wright of George Fox University wins 2019 Ad Rutschman Girls Small College Athlete of the Year NBC News
Biola president makes $559K Chronicle of Higher Ed
***TEACHING
A New Interactive Visualization of the 165,000 Most-Frequently Assigned Texts in College Courses Open Culture
***ACADEMIC LIFE
Steven Pinker's aid in Jeffrey Epstein's legal defense renews criticism of an increasingly divisive public intellectual Inside Higher Ed
Prof quits after allegations of cocaine binges and out-of-control parties New York Post
Students Seek Ouster of Penn Law Professor Over Race Uproar Bloomberg
***STUDENT MEDIA
Ethical concerns surround candidate for Student Media director position The Crimson White
After 65 years, Oregon student newspaper moves to online format The Bulletin
***STUDENT LIFE
American kids would much rather be YouTubers than astronauts Ars Technica
It's been millennials vs boomers for too long: it's time to start blaming Generation X The Guardian
'I'm Drowning': Those Hit Hardest By Student Loan Debt Never Finished College NPR
Univ of Michigan student stripped of Miss Michigan World America title Detroit Free Press
Falling in love with your ideas, defending them, and being unwilling to let them go doesn’t increase creativity, it inhibits it. -Aaron Orendorff
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
Faith does not preclude doubt. It consists of staking your life on the rumor of grace. -Michael Gerson
Everybody thinks of changing humanity. but nobody thinks of changing himself - J Harold Smith
Psychological research shows that misinformation is cleverly designed to bypass careful analytical reasoning, meaning that it can easily slip under the radar of even the most intelligent and educated people. No one is completely immune. Indeed, there is now evidence that smarter people may sometimes be even more vulnerable to certain ideas, since their greater brainpower simply allows them to rationalise their (incorrect) beliefs.
David Robson writing in The Guardian
***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
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
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
Research publications: does piling them high sell them short? Times Higher Education
Replicator Degrees of Freedom Allow Publication of Misleading 'Failures to Replicate' SSRN
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
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
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
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
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
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)
***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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
I think post-millennial teenagers are misled. Many are deeply unhappy spending so much time on social media and would rather hang out with their friends in real life. But because they believe that everyone else expects them to be on it, disclosing their true preferences has become too costly. The immense pressure of the norm means that no one can quit.
Framing the issue solely as social media addiction, besides being unhelpful, might in fact hinder social change. Measures that give teens and parents more control over the time they spend on social media —work well to increase awareness of our behavior, but they do nothing to change expectations about the private beliefs and hidden preferences of other people. Because of this, strategies that target individual behavior will be largely ineffective when it comes to changing the social norm.
Arunas L. Radzvilavicius writing in Undark
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.
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.
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