The “No one to blame but themselves” rule “implies that once someone breaks a rule, you can do whatever you want to them and you cannot be blamed. We need that one mortal sin which will let us revoke a person's status as a human worthy of dignity, respect, empathy or anything else.

I think the reason so many racists could pass an ‘Are you a racist?’ polygraph test is that they don't think minorities are inhuman due to their color, but rather their supposed criminality.. The single hint of a single minor crime meant absolutely anything done in response is justified.. They all think their daily cruelty is in response to some extreme provocation.

If cruelty wears justice as a disguise, then anyone who believes in justice is at risk.”

David Wong writing for Cracked

September 17, 2017

religion

September 17, 2017/ Stephen Goforth

Few study religion to learn how to live – many search it for justification for the way they already live.

September 16, 2017

The Backfire Effect

September 16, 2017/ Stephen Goforth

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

Mark Lorch writing in Business Inisder

September 15, 2017

the opportunity

September 15, 2017/ Stephen Goforth

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

September 14, 2017

failure

September 14, 2017/ Stephen Goforth

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

September 13, 2017

Confirmation Bias

September 13, 2017/ Stephen Goforth

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

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

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

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

Kendra Cherry writing in VeryWell.com

September 12, 2017

expectation

September 12, 2017/ Stephen Goforth

Expectation is the root of all heartache. (unknown)

September 11, 2017

Articles of Interest - Sept 11

September 11, 2017/ Stephen Goforth

***TECHNOLOGY

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

What machines can tell from your face The Economist

Strong password strategy to protect against hackers The Washington Post

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

Identity Theft Feeds on Social Security Numbers Run Amok Bloomberg

The Password Game Survey Gizmo

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

***SOCIAL MEDIA

News Use Across Social Media Platforms 2017 Journalism.org

***PRODUCING MEDIA

How Podcasting Became Hollywood's Latest Obsession VICE

***JOURNALISM

News Use Across Social Media Platforms 2017 Pew Research

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

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

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

***THE BUSINESS OF JOURNALISM

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

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

***FAKE NEWS

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

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

Facebook undermines its own effort to fight fake news Politico

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

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

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

***PERSONAL GROWTH

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

***GRAMMAR

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

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

A Philosopher-Grammarian Gets Something Right Chronicle of Higher Ed

***LANGUAGE

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

***LITERATURE

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

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

The Forgotten Value of a Literature Course Chronicle of Higher Ed

***GENDER

DeVos Pushes New Approach on Title IX Enforcement Inside Higher Ed

The New Science of Sex and Gender Scientific American

***RACE & ETHNICITY ISSUES

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

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

Virtual Reality Project Captures Experience Of Crossing The Border NPR

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

***FREE SPEECH

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

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

Three Textbooks on Campus Free Speech Inside Higher Ed

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

Study Looks At How People Think About Free Speech NPR

***LEGAL ISSUES

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

***BUSINESS

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

The Surprising Upsides To Getting Angry At Work Fast Company

***RELIGION

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

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

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

God and the Gridiron Game Christianity Today

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

The Private Faith of Hillary Clinton New Yorker

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

Christians And DACA NPR

***FILM

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

***SEXUAL HARASSMENT & ASSAULT

An explanation of Title IX and its Sexual Assault Protections

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

The Bad Science Behind Campus Response to Sexual Assault The Atlantic

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

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

***HEALTH

How Science Is Unlocking the Secrets of Addiction National Geographic

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

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

***SCIENCE

Could disruptive technologies also reform academia? eef

***PSYCHOLOGY

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

***HISTORY

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

***RESEARCH

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

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

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

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

***HIGHER ED

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

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

***TEACHING

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

**STUDENT MEDIA

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

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

***STUDENT LIFE

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

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

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

Millennials mostly watch TV after it’s aired Recode

The hardest test of freshman year? Survival The Washington Post

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

***ACADEMIC LIFE

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

September 11, 2017

Breaking Through The Wall

September 11, 2017/ Stephen Goforth

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

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

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

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

Stephen Goforth

September 10, 2017

the tuition

September 10, 2017/ Stephen Goforth

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

September 10, 2017

Experience

September 10, 2017/ Stephen Goforth

Experience teaches only the teachable. - Aldous Huxley

September 09, 2017

each success

September 09, 2017/ Stephen Goforth

Each success you encounter only buys an admission ticket to a more difficult challenge.

September 08, 2017

Using Peer Pressure to our advantage

September 08, 2017/ Stephen Goforth

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

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

September 07, 2017

education is

September 07, 2017/ Stephen Goforth

Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self confidence. -Robert Frost

September 06, 2017

It takes a Villiage

September 06, 2017/ Stephen Goforth

Of all the new experiences parenthood has brought into my life, I was least prepared for the public rebukes. I was standing at a bus stop recently after a long workday with my 2-year-old, worried that we would be caught in an imminent downpour. As I searched my phone for the status of the next bus, a car sped by. “Watch your kid!” the driver yelled unkindly. An immediate panic seized me, but my toddler, who had been holding my hand until a few moments earlier, was perfectly safe, intently examining the wall of a coffee shop not two feet away. The driver assumed he’d seen a neglectful mom absorbed in her phone, too busy scrolling through her Facebook feed to watch a wandering child. It didn’t matter that it wasn’t true; the reproach still stung.

Passing public judgment on a stranger’s parenting has become a national sport. Whole corners of the internet are dedicated to shaming mothers who decline to breast-feed, let their kids cry it out, or dare to sit the little one in front of the TV. Practices that were commonplace 30 years ago, such as allowing a child to walk alone to the playground or sit solo in the car for a few minutes during an errand run, now can lead to calls to the police and moms in handcuffs (see Last Word). This parenting paranoia makes little sense: Statistics prove it’s never been safer to raise a child in the U.S., though we act as if the opposite were true. Raising a child used to take a village of neighbors helping you. Now it takes a village telling you why you’re doing it all wrong.

Carolyn O’Hara, The Week Magazine

September 05, 2017

the play

September 05, 2017/ Stephen Goforth

We keep on assuming that we know the play. We do not even know whether we are in Act I or Act V. We do not know who are the major and who the minor characters. The Author knows.

CS Lewis

September 04, 2017

articles of interest - Sept. 4, 2017

September 04, 2017/ Stephen Goforth

***JOURNALISM

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

The Newseum Deserves to Die Politico

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

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

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

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

***FAKE NEWS

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

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

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

Fact-Check That Viral Image in Two Clicks Life Hacker

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

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

***TECHNOLOGY

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

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

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

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

***BIG DATA & STATISTICS

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

The first quantum-cryptographic satellite network will be Chinese Economist

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

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

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

***SOCIAL MEDIA

Facebook Prepares To Launch New Video Streaming Service NPR

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

***INTERNET

711 million email addresses ensnared in "largest" spambot ZDNet

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

***PERSONAL GROWTH

To Have Good Ideas, Remember to Get Bored Life Hacker

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

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

***CRITICAL THINKING

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

Adam Ruins Everything goes after itself College Humor

***LANGUAGE

This is How Canada Talks The 10 and 3

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

***LITERATURE

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

***GENDER

Why Female Students Leave STEM Inside Higher Ed

***RACE & ETHNICITY ISSUES

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

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

***FREE SPEECH

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

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

***LEGAL ISSUES

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

H3H3 Wins Summary Judgment on Fair Use YouTube Lawsuit Plagiarism Today

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

Google Researchers Create Algorithm to Remove Image Watermarks Plagiarism Today

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

***ART & DESIGN

DeviantArt and Copyright issues Plagiarism Today

A Short Documentary on Artist Jeff Koons Open Culture

***MUSIC

The secret rhythm in Radiohead’s “Videotape” Vox

***BUSINESS

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

Silicon Valley employees celebrate their own exploitation New York Times

***RADIO

Traditional Radio Faces a Grim Future, New Study Says Variety

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

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

***JOBS & INTERNSHIPS

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

***HEALTH

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

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

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

***SCIENCE

Physicists Want to Rebuild Quantum Theory From Scratch Wired

***PSYCHOLOGY

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

Could a Videogame Strengthen Your Aging Brain? Wired

***PHILOSOPHY

Wittgenstein on Whether Speech Is Violence Jstor

***HIGHER ED

The Myth of American Universities as Inequality-Fighters The Atlantic

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

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

***HUMANITIES /STEM

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

***TEACHING

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

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

***SEXUAL HARASSMENT & ASSAULT

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

***ACADEMIC LIFE

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

Professor Fired for Blaming Harvey on Texas Voting GOP NBC News

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

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

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

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

***STUDENT MEDIA

Let’s Talk about cocks (opinion) Journo Terrorist

***STUDENT LIFE

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

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

Why You Should Read That Whole Text Book Right Now Wired

College Students evacuated after being stranded by Hurricane Harvey Washington Post

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

A Few Telling Freshman Trends New York Times

***RELIGION

Spicer gets his audience with the pope Politico

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

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

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

***RELIGION: THE NASHVILLE STATEMENT

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

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

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

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

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

September 04, 2017

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

September 04, 2017/ Stephen Goforth

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

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

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

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

Jenni Berrett writing in Ravishly

Becoming

Becoming

@StephenGoforth