articles of interest - July 10

***TECHNOLOGY

Cameras are about to get a lot smaller: The future of photography is flat  Economist

Why You Will One Day Have a Chip in Your Brain  Wired

Nest Founder: “I Wake Up In Cold Sweats Thinking, What Did We Bring To The World?”  Fast Company

A reality check for virtual headsets: VR has been more about hype than substance. Will that change?  Economist

There Are Plenty Of RFID-Blocking Products, But Do You Need Them?  NPR

Two-Factor Authentication is a Mess  The Verge

 ***SOCIAL MEDIA

Facebook is getting ready to test paid subscriptions with publications  Digiday

Facebook won’t let people change the headlines in links — and social media managers aren’t pleased  Digiday

***PRODUCING MEDIA

How to record and publish podcasts using Anchor  Journalism.co

When radio ratings got more precise, it changed how programmers saw their audience. Are podcasters heading for something similar?  Harvard’s Nieman Lab

***BIG DATA & STATISTICS

A brief guide for getting started in Python  Medium

Should scientists who use AI include their computers as co-authors on their papers?  Science Magazine    

Can we get AI to explain why it’s making the decision it’s making? Will that get us to trust it?   MIT Technology Review

Is artificial intelligence a job killer? Well, deep neural networks will automate many jobs, but..   The Conversation

How machine learning is already a big part of our lives  Android Authority

Will patients trust their lives to machine learning? The medical algorithm revolution is coming  MIT Technology Review   

***JOURNALISM

Q&A: NPR’s Audie Cornish on the intimacy of interviewing  Columbia Journalism Review

Alcohol industry isn’t just funding studies; it’s also funding journalism to sway public opinion  Health News Review

Why journalism is shifting away from 'objectivity'  Christian Science Monitor

Friend of Murdered Mexican Journalist Sees Lessons in His Death  Voice of San Diego

***THE BUSINESS OF JOURNALISM

The media needs to ‘get the hell out of the picture,’ Columbia Journalism Review publisher says (opinion)  Washington Post

What we miss when we obsess over Trump’s tweet  Columbia Journalism Review

Google is putting another $24 million into 107 more European journalism projects, including WikiTribune  Harvard’s Nieman Lab

News Outlets to Seek Bargaining Rights Against Google and Facebook  New York Times

***TEACHING JOURNALISM

What Educators Should Understand About Code and Journalism  PBS Media Shift

Grad school for journalism? Your mileage may vary  Muck Rack

***FAKE NEWS

Is fact-checking ‘fake news’ a waste of time?  Futurity

To Test Your Fake News Judgment, Play This Game  NPR

Fake Memoirs: Man Admits He 'Made Up' Rare Brain Disease for Book  Newsweek

Is a chart lying to you? This video has some tips to figure it out  Vox

How fares trust in journalism amid a sea of fake news?  The Guardian

Fake news bots are so economical, you can use them over and over  Harvard’s Nieman Lab

iBooks Author vs Fake News: the fight we deserve  Talking New Media

***PERSONAL GROWTH

The Secret of an Exceptional Life  Becoming (my blog)

The three words that make brainstorming sessions at Google, Facebook, and IDEO more productive  Quartz

***WRITING & READING

College Summer Reading  New York Times

How Do Court Reporters Type So Quickly?  WCCO TV

A magazine piece about a student offered a full ride to Harvard is retracted after the student admits she forged the acceptance letter  Bridge

***LANGUAGE

When Did Colonial America Gain Linguistic Independence?  Jstor

Twitter is useful for many things—including (unexpectedly) for studying dialects  Economist

Nina in Siberia the enormous difficulty of the rules of grammar  Chronicle of Higher Ed

***LITERATURE

The inaugural San Diego Festival of Books will take place next month at Point Loma's Liberty Station  Union-Tribune

A Digital Archive of Soviet Children’s Books Goes Online: Browse the Artistic, Ideological Collection (1917-1953)  Open Culture

***GENDER 

The University of Florida is under federal Title IX investigation for its handling of a Sexual assault accusation against a Football Star  Tampa By Times

***FREE SPEECH

The Trump administration is now openly threatening to use the Justice Department as a tool for punishing critical speech  New York Magazine

It's Disadvantaged Groups That Suffer Most When Free Speech Is Curtailed on Campus  The Atlantic

U.S. Court of Appeals sides with First Amendment right to video-record police  Poynter

***LEGAL ISSUES

Failed whistleblower suit is a reminder that public universities are hard to sue  Retraction Watch

$10M defamation lawsuit against Deadspin  Las Vegas Review-Journal

 

 
 

***RELIGION

Oklahoma University halts plans to remove religious symbols from chapel  Inside Higher Ed

The Presbyterian Church in America, Battles Over Gender  The Atlantic

California Beach Party Brings Together Ex-Believers  NPR

Christian-owned Hobby Lobby accused of hypocrisy after being fined for role in smuggling case  Associated Press

Samford won't accept Baptist convention funds after LGBT flap  ALcom

Christian Radio's 'Bible Answer Man' Finds New Faith Home, Deals With Fallout  WFAE

Christian geologist wins battle to study Grand Canyon rocks  New York Post

An atheist Muslim on what the left and right get wrong about Islam  Vox

'Building A Bridge' Between The Catholic Church And LGBT Community  NPR

Is God boosting Stephen Colbert's ratings?  The Week

Vatican outlaws use of gluten free bread for Holy Communion  The Telegraph

***RELIGION AND POLITICS

On abortion, persistent divides between – and within – the two parties  Pew Research

***ART & DESIGN

Why Art Historians Still Ignore Comics  Jstor

How games are impacting urban design  Arstechnica

***MUSIC

The Star-Spangled Banner Verse You've Probably Never Heard  NPR

How Losing SoundCloud Would Change Music  The Ringer

Only Queen can rock an entire stadium without even being there  YouTube

***FILM

The Mummy,' 'The House,' and 'Transformers 5': Hollywood's Problem Isn't Sequels, but Bad Movies  The Atlantic

Hollywood studios dip their toes in virtual reality: Fox, MGM, Warner Brothers and Steven Spielberg are among those investing in the technology  Economist

***HEALTH

'Architecture Of An Asylum' Tracks History Of U.S. Treatment Of Mental Illness  NPR

This Map Shows How Some US Counties Are Prescribing Way More Opioids Than Others  BuzzFeed News

Scientists Aren't Good At Predicting Which Research Will Pan Out  NPR

The Machines Are Getting Ready to Play Doctor: An algorithm that spots heart arrhythmia shows how AI will revolutionize medicine—but patients must trust machines with their lives  MIT Technology Review

A former pediatric intensive care unit nurse: I shared my toddler's hospital bill on Twitter.. First came supporters—then death threats  Vox

The latest technology is even more beneficial for the old than for the young  Economist

U.S. Hospitals Struggle To Protect Mothers When Childbirth Turns Deadly  NPR

***SCIENCE

Many Women Of Color Feel Unsafe Working In Science, New Study Finds   BuzzFeed News

***PSYCHOLOGY

Research Shows Birth Order Really Does Matter  NPR  

Why We Lie: The Science Behind Our Deceptive Ways  National Geographic

Extreme internet use linked to mental illness in teens  The Next Web

The weird power of the placebo effect, explained  Vox

Dads Respond Differently To Daughters Than To Sons, Study Finds  NPR

Police departments in the US are practicing mindfulness to reduce officers' stress—and violence  Quartz

Stephen Fry Identifies the Cognitive Biases That Make Trump Tick  Open Culture

***NEUROSCIENCE  

Pain Before Pleasure Makes The Pleasure Even Better, Study Finds  NPR

***RESEARCH

Should scientists who use artificial intelligence include their computers as co-authors on their papers?   Science Mag

When a Cat Co-Authored a Paper in a Leading Physics Journal (1975)  Open Culture

***HIGHER ED

Universities and colleges struggle to stem big drops in enrollment  The Hechinger Report

UC admission rate for Californian students drops slightly  Mercury News

In dramatic shift, more than half of Republicans now say colleges have a negative impact on the U.S.  Inside Higher Ed

In emails, then-Baylor regent calls students suspected of drinking “perverted little tarts” “very bad apples,” “insidious and inbred” and “the vilest and most despicable of girls”  Waco Tribune-Herald

How Cal Baptist in Riverside inspired Alaskan actor and musician to settle in Southern California  Press Enterprise

Speakers at BYU religious freedom conference concerned about religious liberty in educational institutions  Herald Extra

Christian universities are growing across Africa  Quartz

***TEACHING

AI Is Making It Extremely Easy for Students to Cheat  Wired

Anthropologist offers explanation for why faculty members hesitate to adopt innovative teaching methods  Inside Higher Ed

***ACADEMIC LIFE

Judge tosses out campus carry gun lawsuit filed by UT professors  My Statesman

A test question about hot wax has landed a professor in hot water  The Fire

why Facebook survived

While Facebook was just getting on its feet in 2004, a similar social network called Campus Network (or CU Community) was ahead and more advanced. Slate explains why only one survived.

Why did Facebook succeed where Campus Network failed? The simplest explanation is, well, its simplicity. Yes, Campus Network had advanced features that Facebook was missing. While Campus Network blitzed first-time users right away, Facebook updated its features incrementally. Facebook respected the Web's learning curve.

Campus Network did too much too soon. Neither site, of course, can claim to be the first social network—Friendster and MySpace already had large followings in 2003. But both Facebook and Campus Network had the crucial insight that overlaying a virtual community on top of an existing community—a college campus—would cement users' trust and loyalty. Campus Network figured it out first. Facebook just executed it better.

While people want to make their own choices, research shows too many options creates problems. We become overwhelmed. There is no substitute for simplicity and clarity. Whether on purpose or by accident, Facebook was built from the perspective of looking at what users would do with the site rather than building to show off what its creators could do. One approach shows respect for the audience.

Stephen Goforth

articles of interest - July 3

 ***SOCIAL MEDIA

Instagram Unleashes an AI System to Blast Away Nasty Comments  Wired

How do teens really use Instagram, Snapchat and other apps?  Recode

***PRODUCING MEDIA

This Is How Top Instagram Publishers Use Video vs. Photos  PBS Media Shift

***TECHNOLOGY

3D printing transforms the economics of manufacturing  Economist

How To Find a WiFi Hotspot Using Facebook  Life Hacker

***JOURNALISM

How to create a data journalism team: practical tips for bringing programmers and journalists together  Knight Center

The State of Investigative Reporting: Highlights From lRE 2017  PBS Media Shift

***THE BUSINESS OF JOURNALISM

John Oliver explains “the most influential media company that you’ve never heard of”  Vox

President Trump attacks Amazon, incorrectly claiming that it owns The Washington Post for tax purposes  Recode

New York Times copy desk to top editors: ‘You have turned your backs on us’  Poynter

The Washington Post’s New Social Media Policy Forbids Disparaging Advertisers  Washingtonian

Cable News Ratings: CNN, Fox News, MSNBC All Post Double-Digit Growth  Variety

Hundreds of New York Times employees stage walkout to protest copy editor cuts  Washington Post

***FAKE NEWS

Fake news: you ain’t seen nothing yet: Generating convincing audio and video of fake events  Economist

Facebook found a new way to identify spam and false news articles in your News Feed  Recode

How to Tell Unscientific "Thought Leaders" from People You Should Trust  Life Hacker

Top Dem wants FBI to investigate fake net neutrality comments  The Hill

A Beginner’s Guide to Calling BSScience of Us  New York Magazine

***BIG DATA & STATISTICS

Ways data-driven analytics get stretched too far  Analytic Bridge

Creators of a new search platform claims it will make searching geospatial data easier  Datanami

Machine Learning and the Language of the Brain: trying to figure out how the human brain organizes language  Next Platform

Warren Buffett's disarmingly simple investment strategy, explained by big data  Market Watch

***HEALTH

111 terminally ill patients took their own lives in first 6 months of California right-to-die law  LA Times

A Doctor’s View of Obamacare and Trumpcare from Rural Georgia  The New Yorker

Google Can Now Remove Leaked Medical Records From Search Results  The Guardian

***LEGAL ISSUES

Blogger facing potential jail time says he is ‘honor bound’ not to identify sources  Columbia Journalism Review

ABC, meat producer settle in $1.9B 'pink slime' libel suit  Associated Press

Tolkien Estate and Warner Bros. Settle Lawsuit Over Licensing  New York Times

***PERSONAL GROWTH

Moving past planning to doing  Becoming (my blog)

Chief Justice John Roberts Bucks Tradition In Graduation Speech  NPR

***GRAMMAR

i before e except after...w?  Nathan Cunn

The Half-Life of Metaphors  Chronicle of Higher Ed

***WRITING & READING

We Investigate: Principals caught plagiarizing  KTMF/KWYB TV

***LANGUAGE

How do you pronounce “GIF”?  Economist

A Lecture About the History of the Scots Language … in Scots: How Much Can You Comprehend?  Open Culture

***LITERATURE

TSA Ends pilot program asking passengers to remove books from their Carryon Luggage  Inside Higher Ed

Victor Hugo’s frustrating, beautiful Les Misérables was completed on this date in 1862  Vox

***GENDER

Women in Tech Speak Frankly on Culture of Harassment  New York Times

College Lawyers Say Title IX Process Must Be Fair to Both Parties  Chronicle of Higher Ed

How science got women wrong: Why the view that women are gentle, caring and empathetic, whereas men are strong, rational and dominant, is misguided  Economist

How male and female gun owners in the U.S. compare  Pew Research Center

Why Can’t Your Company Just Fix the Gender Wage Gap?  Bloomberg

***RACE & ETHNICITY ISSUES

How do you talk to kids about race?  Quartz

CBS tried to pay Hawaii Five-0’s Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park 15% less than their white co-stars  Vox

***FREE SPEECH

Campus 'Free Speech' Bill Struck Down by Louisiana Governor   Associated Press

Nearly one quarter of Americans say the First Amendment goes too far in the freedoms it guarantees  The First Amendment Center

Coal King Begs Court to Gag John Oliver   The Daily Beast

***RELIGION

Outpouring raises $300K for Christian music dad who lost wife after childbirth  USA Today

Poll shows a dramatic generational divide in white evangelical attitudes on gay marriage  Washington Post

Smithsonian Exhibit Explores Religious Diversity's Role In U.S. History  NPR

California megachurch pastor steps down for unspecified 'personal misjudgements'  Christianity Today

Southern Baptist Convention still facing fallout from racial legacy (opinion)  Post and Courier

A university in Oklahoma considers removing its Bibles and crosses from its chapel  Washington Post

Census data shows Christianity on the wane in Australia, but Pentecostal church bucks trend  The Guardian

Religious faith may reduce stress, helping believers live longer  Journalists Resources

***RELIGION AND POLITICS

Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow steered millions in donations to family members through his Christian nonprofit  The Guardian

The political beliefs of evangelical Christians: Personal morality in politics is negotiable  Economist

GOP bill would let churches endorse political candidates  Associated Press

***ART & DESIGN

Why a Dad Photoshops his Baby Daughter into Dangerous Situations  New Yorker

***MUSIC

Going to Concerts and Experiencing Live Music Can Make Us Healthier & Happier, a New Psychology Study Confirms  Open Culture

Why does some music give you the chills?  Quartz  

***FILM

Hollywood Conducting First Independent Audit of China's Box Office  Hollywood Reporter

***THE BUSINESS OF MEDIA

What “Pivoting to Video” Really Means (opinion)  The Righer

***SCIENCE

Is the staggeringly profitable business of scientific publishing bad for science?  The Guardian

Florida residents can now challenge the science taught in public schools  Mashable

'Exaggerations' threaten public trust in science, says leading statistician  The Guardian

***PSYCHOLOGY

Men and women speak in a higher-pitched voice during a job interviews  Quartz

I’m Pretty Sure I Remember That — False Memories (video)  Scholarly Kitchen

Psychologists have found that having kids lowers women's self-esteem for at least three years  Quartz  

***NEUROSCIENCE

As Far As Your Brain Is Concerned, Audiobooks Are Not ‘Cheating’  New York Mag

***HISTORY

A real history is messy: A great nation’s birth-pains included sectarian rage and political terror  The Economist

An Animated Introduction to the Life & Work of Marie Curie, the First Female Nobel Laureate  Open Culture

***RESEARCH

A New Theory on How Researchers Can Solve the Reproducibility Crisis: Do the Math  Chronicle of Higher Ed

Image doctoring must be halted Nature News

Small studies: Be vigilant when writing about them and skeptical when reading about them  Health News Review

***STUDENT MEDIA  

5 Takeaways for Student Journalists from Rolling Stone's Libel Settlement  Student Press Law Center

***STUDENT LIFE

Thousands of College Students Could Be Homeless, Study Suggests  Associated Press

International students: Where they come from and what they study  Journalists Resources

Forgive Us Our Debts: How Christian College Grads Pay the Price  Christianity Today  

***JOBS & INTERNSHIPS

Internal Brand Communications Internship  Jack in the Box, San Diego  

***SEXUAL HARASSMENT & ASSAULT

Universities Are Facing A “Passing The Trash” Scandal People Are Comparing To The Catholic Church  BuzzFeed News

U. of California System Changes How It Responds to Sexual Harassment and Violence   Chronicle of Higher Ed

***ACADEMIC LIFE

American U scholar says provost cherry-picked negative student ratings of her teaching to deny her a promotion  Inside Higher Ed

This is no way to treat adjunct professors (opinion)  Newsday

***HUMANITIES /STEM

Tracy Chou, leading Silicon Valley engineer, explains why every tech worker needs a humanities education  Quartz

***TEACHING

Fear of Failure  New York Times

All the Classroom’s a Stage  Chronicle of Higher Ed

That’s what people do-and that should truly frighten us

I require every new FBI special agent and intelligence analyst to go to the Holocaust Museum. Naturally, I want them to learn about abuse of authority on a breathtaking scale. But I want them to confront something more painful and more dangerous: I want them to see humanity and what we are capable of.

I want them to see that, although this slaughter was led by sick and evil people, those sick and evil leaders were joined by, and followed by, people who loved their families, took soup to a sick neighbor, went to church and gave to charity. Good people helped murder millions. And that’s the most frightening lesson of all — that our very humanity made us capable of, even susceptible to, surrendering our individual moral authority to the group, where it can be hijacked by evil.

In their minds, the murderers and accomplices of Germany, and Poland*, and Hungary, and so many, many other places didn’t do something evil. They convinced themselves it was the right thing to do, the thing they had to do. That’s what people do. And that should truly frighten us.

Former FBI Director James Comey speaking at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s 2015 National Tribute Dinner, April 23, 2015

Watch the video of the speech here

*The Truth about Poland and the Holocaust

enthusiam makes the difference

As part of an experiment, midcareer executives competed against one another by pitching business plans to other execs at the same level. After the presentations, the executives rated all the plans. MIT researchers discovered they could predict which plans would be well received, just by observing the presenter’s tone of voice. The greater the presenter’s excitement and confidence, the more likely the plan would be met with approval. Think about that: The enthusiasm and charisma of the presenter was as critical to the plan’s success as the facts he or she was presenting.

The MIT researchers also found these elements played a critical role in a fruitful outcome:

* a consistent tone and motion

* confidence and practice

* mirroring the interviewer's gestures

* acting active and helpful

Stephen Goforth

articles of interest - June 26

***JOURNALISM

Q&A: Ira Glass on structuring stories, asking hard questions  Columbia Journalism Review

Using Texts as Lures, Government Spyware Targets Mexican Journalists and Their Families  New York Times

Nobody Speak: Trials of a Free Press (a new documentary now on Netflix) KPCC radio  KPCC

Welcome to the Wikipedia of the Alt-Right  Wired

Can Journalists Live Without Twitter?  New Republic

Reuters Institute’s Digital News Report 2017  Digital News Report

***THE BUSINESS OF JOURNALISM

Jeff Bezos has a lot of advice for the newspaper industry  Fast Company

I almost let my journalism job destroy my marriage. Don’t make the same mistake  Poynter

The state of paying for news  Digiday

***FAKE NEWS

The fake Vox staffers who posted macabre things on the internet, explained  Slate

How An Obviously Fake Story About A Couple Who Never Eat Went Viral  Digg

The agenda-setting power of fake news: A big data analysis of the online media landscape from 2014 to 2016   Boston University Researchers

Fake news of a fatal car crash wiped out $4 billion in ethereum’s market value yesterday  Quartz

How to spot fake news (and teach kids to be media-savvy)  Salon

***PRODUCING MEDIA

Vimeo says it’s not going to launch a video subscription service, after all  Recode

How Editors Can Prepare to Livestream Breaking News  Video Strategist

***THE BUSINESS OF MEDIA

Podcast Ad Revenues Expected to Top $220 Million in 2017, Climbing 85% from Previous Year, According to IAB  Interactive Advertising Bureau

***SOCIAL MEDIA

My Company Tried Slack For Two Years. This Is Why We Quit  Fast Company

YouTube has 1.5 billion logged-in monthly users watching a ton of mobile video Tech Crunch

Facebook video ad viewability rates are as low as 20 percent, agencies say  Digiday

Using social media appears to diversify your news diet, not narrow it  Harvard's Nieman Lab

1 in 5 Smartphone Owners Worldwide Use Their Device Every 5 Minutes  Interactive Advertising Bureau

***TECHNOLOGY

Google Drive will soon back up your entire computer  The Verge

***BIG DATA & STATISTICS

Warren Buffett's disarmingly simple investment strategy, explained by big data  MarketWatch

Research: Move your #bigdata to the cloud now or you won't be able to keep up with customers  Information Week

***PERSONAL GROWTH

Is Talent Overrated?  Becoming (my blog)

Here's An Awkward Question: Why Are Some People Awkward?  Digg

***GRAMMAR

Apostrophes That Make You Go Hmmm  Chronicle of Higher Ed

***LANGUAGE

Amazon is planning to rival Google with a service that translates languages  CNBC

The Future of Language  Ozy

Cantonese isn’t dead yet, so stop writing its eulogy  Quartz

***LITERATURE

Academics Alarmed about TSA Plans Requiring Books be Removed Carry Luggage  Inside Higher Ed

***GENDER  

The health care sector had the largest gap between vacancies and hires of any sector but Men don’t Want to Be Nurses (opinion)  New York Times   

Title IX investigation closed at Liberty University  Associated Press

***RACE & ETHNICITY ISSUES

How stereotypes in TV shows and movies may affect your child's development ABC News

A Writer On Being A Black Man In Minnesota  NPR

Racist Snapchat story targeting Sikh man on flight sparks outrage on social media  The Independent

***FREE SPEECH

Who's Afraid of Free Speech? What critics of campus protest get wrong about the state of public discourse (opinion)  The Atlantic

4 Highlights From a U.S. Senate Hearing on Campus Free Speech  Chronicle of Higher Ed

Do Free Speech and Inclusivity Clash? At meeting of college lawyers, panelists rue students’ lack of understanding of First Amendment and share strategies for balancing expression and sensitivity  Inside Higher Ed

***LEGAL ISSUES

Republican Coal King Sues HBO Over John Oliver’s Show ("Any core of merit is buried in nonsense”)  The Daily Beast

Supreme Court Sets Higher Bar For Revoking U.S. Citizenship  NPR

Why Racially Offensive Trademarks Are Now Legally Protected  The New Yorker

Ban on Sex Offenders Using Social Media Violates First Amendment–Packingham v. North Carolina  Technology and Marketing Law Blog

Creators of Tupac biopic 'All Eyez on Me' sued by music journalist for infringement  LA Times

ll-Advised Copyright Lawsuit Over Facebook Live Video Becomes Costly For Plaintiff–Konangataa v. ABC  Technology and Marketing Law Blog

***RELIGION

How a culture of sexual repression and unquestioned obedience allows sexual abuse to flourish in fundamentalist Christian communities  New Republic

No major US religious groups approve refusing service to gays  Religious News Service

Vice President Mike Pence speaks at Focus on the Family’s 40th anniversary celebration  Denver Post

The preacher lived a life of luxury. But the feds just indicted him on tax fraud  Charlotte Observer

How CrossFit Acts Like a Religion  The Atlantic

2,000-Year-Old Manuscript of the Ten Commandments Gets Digitized: See/Download “Nash Papyrus” in High Resolution  Open Culture

Tell Us 5 Things About Your Book: ‘The Mind of God’  New York Times

How A YouTuber's Cult Following Became An Actual Cult  Cracked

***RELIGION AND THE COURTS

Supreme Court to take case on baker who refused to sell wedding Cake to Gay Couple  Associated Press

What a SCOTUS decision over a church playground means for religious freedom in America  Vox

Supreme Court Weakens Wall Between Church and State (opinion)  Bloomberg

The Supreme Court’s four big announcements today on religion  Washington Post

***MUSIC

The Slow Death of the Electric Guitar  Washington Post  

***FILM

Hollywood Blockbusters Rule China’s Box Office This Summer  Variety

The Ken Burns Effect  Chronicle of Higher Ed

The Incredibles' Doesn't Really Start Until One Scene Halfway Through The Movie  Digg

A Crash Course on Soviet Montage, the Russian Approach to Filmmaking That Revolutionized Cinema  Open Culture

***SOCIOLOGY

Different languages: How cultures around the world draw shapes differently  Quartz

How the country's wealthiest impact information access  MSNBC

***HEALTH

Vaccines: Last Week Tonight (video)  John Oliver

How Two Common Medications Became One $455 Million Specialty Pill  Propublica

Here’s why you can go ahead and ignore all those clickbaiting ‘olive oil protects against Alzheimer’s’ headlines  Health News Review

Our gut talks and sometimes argues with our brain. Now we know how  Washington Post

CBS News says ‘yoga as good as physical therapy’–OK, but what does ‘good’ mean?  Health News Review

Fever during pregnancy may increase autism risk  Washington Post

Multiple health news ethical problems with Minneapolis TV station’s Mayo Clinic story on breast Cancer  Health News Review

***NEUROSCIENCE  

It's important to remember that forgetting is important  New Atlas

Machine Learning and the Language of the Brain: trying to figure out how the human brain organizes language  Next Platform

***CRITICAL THINKING

In Praise of Critical Thinking  Vogue

***PHILOSOPHY

Six famous people who studied philosophy  Washington Post

***ETHICS

Wall Street Journal fires prominent journalist Jay Solomon over ethics violation  Business Insider

***RESEARCH

Problems with the jargon “statistically significant” and “clinically significant”  Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science

***HIGHER ED

Three major textbook publishers sue bookstore provider over pirated books  Inside Higher Ed

***HUMANITIES /STEM

Foreign-born nearly doubled share of STEM workers since 1990  Axios

***TEACHING

The effects of text-message alerts to parents about students' GPAs  Harvard

***STUDENT LIFE

How Accusing A Powerful Man of Rape Drove A College Student To Suicide  BuzzFeed News

Aggressive grackles prompt campus warnings  Daily Texas

***SEXUAL HARASSMENT & ASSAULT

Tracking Athletes’ Sex Offenses  Inside Higher Ed

U. of Oregon Athlete Played a Season While Under Investigation for Sexual Assault  Daily Emerald (student newspaper)

***ACADEMIC LIFE

Going on Fox News cost me my job, professor claims  NewJersey.com

Two more professors find themselves the target of physical threats and harassment  Inside Higher Ed

Professors’ Growing Risk: Harassment for Things They Never Really Said  Chronicle of Higher Ed

The Illustrated Guide to a PhD: 12 Simple Pictures That Will Put the Daunting Degree into Perspective  Open Culture

Social Media’s Outrage Mob

So what is it about social media that transforms ordinary internet users into pitchfork-wielding villagers? Futurologist David Brin notes that feelings of righteous indignation can give people a drug-like high. “You go into the bathroom during one of these [indignant] snits,” he says, “and you look in the mirror and you have to admit, this feels great! ‘I am so much smarter and better than my enemies!’” Everyone can now get an instant, ego-boosting high by opening their computer or smartphone and joining in the online shaming of a perceived offender. But they haven’t made the world any better. All they’ve done is made a stranger’s life a little worse.

Theunis Bates writing in The Week Magazine

selling out

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

The Advantage of Disadvantages

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

articles of interest - June 19

***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