We "sell out" whenever we fail to take ownership over who we are. It's much easier to default to the expectations of friends/work/society/church rather than taking responsibility for our thinking and actions. It's a "sell out" in the sense of turning control over to someone/something else when we fail to take ownership over what God has entrusted us with.

Stephen Goforth

June 20, 2017

The Advantage of Disadvantages

June 20, 2017/ Stephen Goforth

The big dream in our society is that if we work hard enough, we will eventually be able to experience a life without limitations or difficulties. It is also one of the biggest sources of friction in our society, creating disappointment, unnecessary suffering, and missed opportunities to live a full life. Some people spend their entire life waiting for that which will never, and can never, happen.

Limitations are not necessarily negative. In fact, I’m beginning to believe that they can give life definition, clarity and freedom. We are called to a freedom of and in limitations—not from. ...Unrestricted water is a swamp—because it lacks restriction, it also lacks depth.

The conclusion we arrive at all depends upon how we look at our limitations. Consider this late-night phone call I received one night. The voice on the other end inquired with great enthusiasm: “What does it mean for a horse to be handicapped!”

She hadn't identified herself, but I knew who it was. Leigh is a very special friend, and we’ve been through much together. She not only suffers from severe cerebral palsy, but has faced other, sometimes even more severe, difficulties- like losing her family at an age too young. Her feistiness and tenacity are not only her hallmarks, but are a contagious influence on us all.

I responded to her question, “Well, Leigh, I’m not exactly into horse racing, but as far as I understand they usually handicap the strongest horse by adding a little extra weight to make the race more fair."

"Yeah, I know!”

The she asked: “What does it mean if you handicap a golfer?”

Well, Leigh- again, I’m not really sure. But as far as I understand the rules, they handicap the best in order to make the game more exciting. The better the golfer, the larger his handicap.”

“Yeah, I know. And what does it mean when a bowler is handicapped?”

After we explored a number of sports, always reaching the same conclusion, there was a rather long pause. Then she said, with bold simplicity. “That’s it!”

That’s what, Leigh?” I replied, not understanding.

“That’s it! That’s why God gave me such a big handicap.. because I’m so special!”

It was one of the finest statement for tenacious dignity in spite of circumstance that I have ever heard.

Tim Hansel, You Gotta Keep Dancin’

June 19, 2017

articles of interest - June 19

June 19, 2017/ Stephen Goforth

***JOURNALISM
The New York Times is tackling hateful comments with Machine Learning from an Alphabet tech incubator Poynter

How to Engage Viewers While Livestreaming News Video Strategist

What makes a great interview? This podcaster sat down with interviewing legends to find out Poynter

***THE BUSINESS OF JOURNALISM

At 'Washington Post,' Tech Is Increasingly Boosting Financial Performance NPR

Vocativ lays off entire editorial staff in shift to video Poynter

***FAKE NEWS

Our problem isn’t ‘fake news.’ Our problems are trust and manipulation (opinion) Wall Street Journal

The surprising number of American adults who think chocolate milk comes from brown cows Washington Post

Fake News: 10 Tips to Help You Identify and Avoid Misleading News Learn Bonds

***ART & DESIGN

10 Basic Principles of Visual Design Medium

Perfect Paragraph A web typography learning game Better Web Type

Winning Composition: Using the Rule of Thirds in Design Medium

The Importance of Cognitive Bias in Experience Design UX Design

Data Visualization and Scale: What If Only 100 People Existed on Earth? (video) Scholarly Kitchen

***PERSONAL GROWTH

The Terrifying Truth Becoming (my blog)

***GRAMMAR

A Story of Grammar Chronicle of Higher Ed

After Years Of Restraint, A Linguist Says 'Yes!' To The Exclamation Point NPR

***WRITING & READING

7 AP style changes for clear, concise PR copy PR Daily

***LANGUAGE

Turkey’s president wants to purge Western words from its language Economist

***LITERATURE

Mosul’s Library Without Books New Yorker

New US poet laureate eager to take poetry to new audience CNN

What Song Lyrics do you Consider Literature? New York Times

J.R.R. Tolkien’s Love Story New Republic

What Churchill And Orwell Had In Common: Both Could Say, 'My Side Is Wrong' NPR

***GENDER

Colorado chancellor suspended for not telling authorities of allegations of domestic violence by assistant coach Inside Higher Ed

Education Dept. closes transgender student cases as it pushes to scale back civil rights investigations Washington Post

***RACE & ETHNICITY ISSUES

Trump Administration Quietly Rolls Back Civil Rights Efforts Across Federal Government ProPublica

Punished for Anti-Racist Satire? A student at SMU said she was unfairly suspended for putting up fliers to respond to racist posters on campus Inside Higher Ed

Police Shootings: How A Culture Of Racism Can Infect Us All NPR

New guidance clears the way for investigating transgender bias cases: Advocates for transgender students say the document is inadequate Inside Higher Ed

***FREE SPEECH

If You Think Campus Free Speech Is No Big Deal, Watch This Shocking Vice News Report From Evergreen State College Reason

2 students are testifying to the Senate about free speech on campus USA Today

***LEGAL ISSUES

4th Circuit Affirms Judgment Against Employer for Failing to Accommodate Employee’s Religious Belief Regarding “Mark of the Beast” Lexology

Supreme Court Won't Hear 'Dancing Baby' Copyright Appeal Media Post

Gene Simmons of Kiss tries to Trademark the Sign Language Gesture for Love Washington Post

Supreme Court Strikes Down State Ban On Registered Sex Offender Social Media Use BuzzFeed

Supreme Court strikes down law blocking disparaging trademarks CNN

Texting suicide verdict could set bad precedent, legal experts say IndyStar

Lawsuit Claims University Fostered Antisemitism on Campus Washington Post

***BIG DATA & STATISTICS

How to cut thru the marketing buzzwords to spot a machine-learning snow job InfoWorld

The New York Times is tackling hateful comments with Machine Learning from an Alphabet tech incubator Poynter

Data scientist queries have to be watched to make sure they don't bog down processing in Hadoop and Spark clusters Search Data Management

Inspecting algorithms for bias and other potential problems with automated decision-making MIT Tech Review

The Big Data solutions that are particularly popular right now fit into one of 15 categories Datamation

***SOCIAL MEDIA

Facebook building feature to let users subscribe to news publications The Australian

Twitter Redesigned Itself to Make the Tweet Supreme Again Wired

Facebook introduces a GIF button in comments The Next Web

***PRODUCING MEDIA

Apple's New Transparency Is Huge for Podcasts Everywhere Wired

This free tool will help you make beautiful timelines Poynter

Audio and Podcasting Fact SheetPew Research Center Pew Research

***RELIGION

Supreme Court rules church plans exempt from ERISA Employee Benefit Advise

How St. Augustine Invented Sex The New Yorker

Rob Bell once questioned hell: Here’s why he is now taking aim at the Bible Religious News Service

Faith and Family in Transition: An evangelical minister reassesses his Brooklyn ministry when his father, also a minister, comes out as a transgender woman New York Times

'Conversion Therapy' Conference in San Diego at City View Church Draws Criticism and Protesters NBC San Diego

R.C. Sproul Jr. Accepts Plea Agreement, Given Probation in Drunk Driving Incident Christian Headlines

Fugitive polygamist Lyle Jeffs was found living in a Ford pickup after a year on the lam, FBI says Washington Post

Greg Laurie, Calvary Chapel’s Big Crusader, Joins Southern Baptist Convention Christianity Today

***BAPTISTS & THE ALT-RIGHT

Southern Baptists denounce the 'Alt-Right' – but only after pastors pushed back against denominational leaders who initially chose not to address the issue CNN

Amid uproar, Southern Baptists condemn 'alt-right' movement Associated Press

What a unanimous Southern Baptist condemnation of the alt-right says about evangelicals in America Vox

***THE BUSINESS OF MEDIA

America’s answer to Russian propaganda TV (it’s own TV propaganda) Economist

***SEXUAL HARASSMENT & ASSAULT

Nonprofit sues Education Dept. for release of information on campus sex-assault investigations Washington Post

***SCIENCE

Empty rhetoric over data sharing slows science Nature News

***HEALTH

Scientists Didn’t Stop Their Study Of Premature Babies Even After Finding Out That It Depended On Broken Oxygen Meters BuzzFeed

Cancer scientist who lost lab wins preliminary court victory against Steward Health Care Boston Globe

Researchers have ditched the autism-vaccine hypothesis. Here’s what they think actually causes it Vox

***PSYCHOLOGY

Study: Depression among teenage girls worse than previous thought Washington Post

***CRITICAL THINKING

Why You Can Never Argue with Conspiracy Theorists Wired

***PHILOSOPHY

The CIA Assesses the Power of French Post-Modern Philosophers: Read a Newly Declassified CIA Report from 1985 Open Culture

How Arabic Translators Helped Preserve Greek Philosophy … and the Classical Tradition Open Culture

***PRODUCTIVITY

Match Your Tasks to Your Energy Level Chronicle of Higher Ed

***HISTORY

American Archive of Public Broadcasting Lets You Stream 7,000 Hours of Historic Public TV & Radio Programs

***RESEARCH

What I learned from predatory publishers Biochemia Medica

How bad footnotes helped cause the opioid crisis Slate

***CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS

Does hookup culture differ on Catholic campuses? The Conversation

***TEACHING

A study's finding that underprepared students fare worse online spurs questions about which groups of students stand to benefit most (and least) from digital learning Inside Higher Ed

***ACADEMIC LIFE

A dispute about a sociology test question on slave families ended in a lecturer's termination this spring at the University of Tennessee Inside Higher Ed

It’s a Dangerous Business, Being a Female Professor Chronicle of Higher Ed

Business school whistleblower claims his firing was retaliation Kansas City Star

Chemist wins injunction against university trying to revoke her degree Retraction Watch

***STUDENT MEDIA

When Student Journalists Need Defending these Lawyers Swoop in for Free Washington Post

***STUDENT LIFE

If you’re eligible for CSU, you’ll be guaranteed a slot under California budget deal Sacramento Bee

June 19, 2017

the test

June 19, 2017/ Stephen Goforth

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

June 19, 2017

What we really believe

June 19, 2017/ Stephen Goforth

Every person expects to be treated as a person. The proof that he really believes there are some unconditional values is that he expects his freedom and dignity to be respected. In his actions, he may not always respect others, but in his reactions he proves that he always expects others to respect his freedom and dignity. Hence, human expectations are the key to what a man believes to be absolute.

Norman Geisler, Options in Contemporary Christian Ethics

June 18, 2017

to love

June 18, 2017/ Stephen Goforth

To love another person is to see the face of God. - Victor Hugo in Les Miserables.

June 16, 2017

without Hope

June 16, 2017/ Stephen Goforth

To live without Hope is to cease to live. - Fyodor Dostoevsky

June 16, 2017

Minding the nurture gap

June 16, 2017/ Stephen Goforth

Upbringing affects opportunity. Upper-middle-class homes are not only richer (with two professional incomes) and more stable; they are also more nurturing. In the 1970s there were practically no class differences in the amount of time that parents spent talking, reading and playing with toddlers. Now the children of college-educated parents receive 50% more of what Robert Putnam calls “Goodnight Moon” time (after a popular book for infants).

(Putnam reports in his book “Our Kids” that) educated parents engage in a non-stop Socratic dialogue with their children, helping them to make up their own minds about right and wrong, true and false, wise and foolish. This is exhausting, so it helps to have a reliable spouse with whom to share the burden, not to mention cleaners, nannies and cash for trips to the theatre.

Working-class parents, who have less spare capacity, are more likely to demand that their kids simply obey them. In the short run this saves time; in the long run it prevents the kids from learning to organise their own lives or think for themselves. Poor parenting is thus a barrier to social mobility, and is becoming more so as the world grows more complex and the rewards for superior cognitive skills increase.

The Economist

June 14, 2017

make him mad

June 14, 2017/ Stephen Goforth

To obtain a man's opinion of you, make him mad. -Oliver Wendell Holmes

June 13, 2017

sacrificing the gift

June 13, 2017/ Stephen Goforth

To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift - Steve Prefontaine

June 13, 2017

Popular People Live Longer (sort of)

June 13, 2017/ Stephen Goforth

Dozens of studies reveal that children’s popularity can be measured reliably by age 3, and it remains remarkably stable not just through the next dozen years of primary and secondary education but also across contexts, as they move from community to community and into adulthood.

Yet this same research reveals that there is more than one type of popularity, and most of us may be investing in the wrong kind. Likability reflects kindness, benevolent leadership and selfless, prosocial behavior. Research suggests that this form of popularity offers lifelong advantages, and leads to relationships that confer the greatest health benefits.

Likability is markedly different from status — an ultimately less satisfying form of popularity that reflects visibility, influence, power and prestige. Status can be quantified by social media followers; likability cannot.

Anyone who has been to high school will recognize the distinction — and recall that those high in one category are often low in the other. Research suggests that despite the great temptations to gain status, those who achieve it ultimately experience greater unhappiness and dissatisfaction, while those who are likable have far greater satisfaction and success.

We may be built by evolution to care deeply about popularity, but it’s up to us to choose the nature of the relationships we want with our peers.

Which means that it wouldn’t kill you to step away from Twitter once in a while.

Mitch Prinstein writing in the New York Times

June 12, 2017

articles of interest - June 12

June 12, 2017/ Stephen Goforth

***JOURNALISM

The 10 secrets to great journalism hidden away in ‘Master of None’ Poynter

Think your journalism job is hard? Try making a podcast from prison Poynter

Google launches news literacy program Axios

Will your FOIA request succeed? This new machine will tell you Poynter

A new model for high-impact investigative reporting Columbia Journalism Review

After charges of sexism, New York Times changes headline on Katy Tur profile Poynter

Conservatives Despise Fact-checking Industry Washington Post

Without a public editor, The New York Times’ new Reader Center aims to connect with its audience Poynter

***JOURNALISM & LEAKS

Did 'Intercept' Out Its Intelligence Source? NPR

Ethical journalism: what to do - and not to do - with leaked emails The Conversation

***THE BUSINESS OF JOURNALISM

Growth in mobile news use driven by older adults Pew Research

***FAKE NEWS

Reuters’ new survey suggests that readers are getting (a bit) smarter about verifying breaking news Harvard’s Nieman Lab

In a Fake Fact Era, Schools Teach the ABCs of News Literacy Wired

A Pro-Trump Conspiracy Theorist, a False Tweet and a Runaway Story New York Times

***BIG DATA & STATISTICS

Algorithms might make life fairer if they are well designed-but how can we know whether they are so designed? MIT’s Technology Review

Artificial intelligence will put spies out of work, too Chicago Tribune

Experts predict when artificial intelligence will exceed human performance MIT’s Technology Review

What’s driving big data into the cloud, and what are the benefits? Inside Big Data

The top 10 deep learning projects on Github include a number of libraries, frameworks, & education resources KD Nuggets

Machine learning comes to Google Sheets, boosting data visualization for users Tech Republic

NGA, NRO, NSA joining DoD In Silicon Valley Breaking Defense

***SOCIAL MEDIA

Facebook Live adds closed captioning for deaf and hard of hearing USA Today

Discourse Theory as Explained by Memes Medium

Skype gets Snapchat treatment Makeover Mashable

***PRODUCING MEDIA

The Lowdown on Livestreaming Platforms Video Strategist

***PERSONAL GROWTH

Somewhere between boredom and anxiety Becoming (my blog)

***GRAMMAR

The A.V. Club copyedited “Predisent” Trump’s lawyer, and the results were not good AV Club

A Word, Please: To stay a while or awhile, that is the question LA Times

Hyphens can be tricky, but they need not drive you crazy The Economist

***WRITING & READING

John Grisham’s Do’s and Don’ts for Writing Popular Fiction New York Times

How to Write Like James Comey Life Hacker

American Writers Museum is just a dead writers’ society Chicago Reader

Don't Judge a Book by Its Cover—Judge It by Its First Page Life Hacker

***LANGUAGE

The Science of Thingummyjigs (and Other Words on the Tip of Your Tongue) Jstor

Discourse Theory as Explained by Memes Medium

***LITERATURE

In Nobel speech, Bob Dylan reminds us reading can be fun Charlotte Observer

Allen Ginsberg’s Howl Manuscripts Now Digitized & Put Online, Revealing the Beat Poet’s Creative Process Open Culture

Stop calling Amazon's new thing with books a 'bookstore' Mashable

***GENDER

Advocates Warn that cuts to the office of Civil Right Would Further Slow Resolution of Backlogged Title IX Cases Inside Higher Ed

Stalkers’ Strategies: With increasing use of social media, college students -- who are already more likely to be victims of stalking -- are more at risk than ever Inside Higher Ed

***RACE & ETHNICITY ISSUES

Interracial Marriages Face Pushback 50 Years After Loving NPR

When the patient is racist, how should the doctor respond? (opinion) Stat News

***FREE SPEECH

The New Censorship on Campus (opinion) Chronicle of Higher Ed

Trump’s Twitter Blocking May Violate First Amendment Wired

Is there a First Amendment right to follow President Trump’s Twitter account? The Conversation

Two-day auction planned for campus assets of Nazarene Bible College The Gazeette

***LEGAL ISSUES

Three Significant ways the Emoji revolution will impact the Law SSRN

How your ugly booking photos (and Tiger’s) became a commodity for cops, hustlers and journalists The Marshall Project

***TECHNOLOGY

Civilian Drones The Economist

Helping blind people navigate: A new way to assist those with poor eyesight The Economist

***RELIGION

'The Shack' Director Defends Portraying God as Black Woman, Says Bible Was Written Allegorically Christian Post

Christians faced widespread harassment in 2015, but mostly in Christian-majority countries Pew Research

Is It Hateful To Believe In Hell? Bernie Sanders' Questions Prompt Backlash NPR

Trump to evangelicals: We're 'under siege,' will be stronger Associated Press

The party registration of religious leaders New York Times

Southern Baptists Embrace Gender-Inclusive Language in the Bible The Atlantic

How Billy Graham Mainstreamed Evangelicals The Daily Beast

Fired gay music director loses lawsuit against church, archdiocese Daily Herald

***MUSIC

Bob Dylan 2016 Nobel Lecture in Literature

***FILM

How Hollywood Came to Fear and Loathe Rotten Tomatoes Vanity Fair

How Filmmakers Captured a Daring Escape From ISIS Territory National Geographic

***THE BUSINESS OF MEDIA

Snapchat's Growth Dips As Competitive Pressures Mount Media Post

You can now buy Snapchat video ads straight from the company’s website Recode

The company behind WordPress is closing its gorgeous San Francisco office because its employees never show up Quartz

The Illusion of Measuring What Customers Want – Jobs to be Done JTBD.into

***SCIENCE

It’s time for universities to crack down on fake science publishers and the academics who use them, legal experts say Ottawa Citizen

Why we can't trust academic journals to tell the scientific truth The Guardian

Quantum mechanics, relativity theory and the nature of time: Time may be fuzzy. If so, the idea of causality may be in trouble The Economist

***HEALTH

The opioid crisis changed how doctors think about pain Vox

A single paragraph published nearly 40 years ago contributed to the opioid epidemic. What can we learn from this? Health News Review

***PSYCHOLOGY

Jane Brody promoting the pseudoscience of Barbara Fredrickson in the New York Times PLOS

The Chatbot Therapist Will See You Now Wired

Beauty sleep is a real thing, research shows BBC

Remembering the Murder You Didn’t Commit The New Yorker

***PHILOSOPHY

The 18th century Comes Alive in Harvard's 'Philosophy Chamber' Boston Globe

***CRITICAL THINKING

Facts Alone Won’t Convince People To Vaccinate Their Kids FiveThirtyEight

***ETHICS

When is a leak ethical? The Conversation

***HIGHER ED

Our college students are changing. Why aren’t our higher education policies? (opinion) Washington Post

University of Michigan campus gun ban upheld by Court of Appeals Michigan Live

Private college tuition is rising faster than inflation .... again USA Today

Jerry Falwell Jr. says he will be part of a Trump education initiative Politico

Baylor provost Jones resigns after one year in the role Waco Tribune

***TEACHING

Engaging Students Through Tests Chronicle of Higher Ed

Student asks court to force poetry professor to give her an A Stevens Point Journal

New study: Students at most risk may be those least well served by online education Inside Higher Ed

How to Use Facebook’s CrowdTangle in the Classroom PBS Media Shift

Facebook Testing Features that Lets Users Teach online Courses Inside Higher Ed

***RESEARCH

Peer review is a thankless job. One firm wants to change that: Publons wants scientists to be rewarded for assessing others’ work The Economist

Do ResearchGate Scores create ghost academic reputations? Springer

A new tool “checks that the data sets underlying published studies are made freely available” Nature

Reverse Engineering JCR’s Self-Citation and Citation Stacking Thresholds Scholarly Kitchen

***STUDENT MEDIA

Inside Odyssey: The Decline of a College Media Empire Fortune

You Don’t Have to Major in Computer Science to Do It as a Career MIT Tech Review

***STUDENT LIFE

Inside the Meme Thread, a Growing Forum for College Students Nationwide Chronicle of Higher Ed

We should thank millennials for ruining these terrible products New York Post

Getting to Know.. Millennials Bloomberg

For Students Going Overseas, an ‘America First’ Presidency Complicates Their Studies Chronicle of Higher Ed

***ACADEMIC LIFE

Portrait of Faculty Mental Health Inside Higher Ed

Prof: a violation of academic freedom to cancel a course that includes material on his university’s recent fake-classes scandal Chronicle of Higher Ed

American University of Beirut Prof (with two U.S. graduate degrees) is refused U.S. admission to present at a San Diego conference Inside Higher Ed

Coming to terms with mental health and academic failures New York Times

Rutgers Philosophy Prof Accused of Raping a Disabled Man gets Conviction Overturned Inside Higher Ed

June 12, 2017

basic as breathing

June 12, 2017/ Stephen Goforth

To be manifestly loved, to be openly admired are human needs as basic as breathing. Why, then, wanting them so much ourselves, do we deny them so often to others?

Arthur Gordon

Becoming

ideas that challenge / comfort / inspire

articles of interest - June 26

What shall we do?

use a compass

making peace

unstirred waters

the love you receive

selling out

The Advantage of Disadvantages

articles of interest - June 19

the test

What we really believe

to love

without Hope

Minding the nurture gap

make him mad

sacrificing the gift

Popular People Live Longer (sort of)

articles of interest - June 12

basic as breathing

Goforth Solutions, LLC