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

Robert Greene, 33 Strategies of War

July 09, 2019

Articles of interest - July 8

July 09, 2019/ Stephen Goforth

***TECHNOLOGY

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

Forecasters Caution 5G Will Interfere With Gathering Weather Data NPR

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

***BIG DATA & AI

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

Artificial intelligence is coming for our faces Wired

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

A new business in small satellites orbiting the Earth Economist

The strange link between the human mind and quantum physics BBC

Not all weather satellites are equal Wired

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

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

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

Robot uses machine learning to harvest lettuce University of Cambridge

***SOCIAL MEDIA

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

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

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

Twitter bans 'dehumanizing language' aimed at religious groups Mashable

***MOBILE

Heedless smartphone zombies keep stepping out in front of cars Economist

***JOURNALISM

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

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

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

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

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

***FAKE NEWS

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

***PRIVACY & SECURITY

How to protect your privacy in Chrome Washington Post

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

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

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

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

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

***PRODUCING MEDIA

How stock photography is made Vox

***INTERNET

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

***PERSONAL GROWTH

Be a Poet Becoming (my blog)

***GRAMMAR

How to Use a Semicolon Correctly Life Hacker

Is an emoji a word or a gesture? Both Quartz

***WRITING & READING

How technology is changing the craft of screenwriting BBC

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

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

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

Papermaking master a gem in a digital age Daily Iowan

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

The unlikely rise of book fairs in the Middle East Economist

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

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

***LITERATURE

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

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

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

***LANGUAGE

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

***POETRY

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

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

Watch Your Poetry With The Visible Poetry Project Book Riot

***GENDER

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

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

***LEGAL ISSUES

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

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

***CRIME & COURTS

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

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

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

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

***RELIGION

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

Mormon and the tricky process of leaving the Church The Verge

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

Pastor builds monster truck for Jesus AL.com

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

How California’s megachurches changed Christian culture Durango Herald

Poll: Americans rarely seek guidance from clergy Religious News Service

U.S. Confidence in Organized Religion Remains Low Gallup

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

***RELIGION AND POLITICS

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

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

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

***CHRISTIAN BOOKS

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

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

***GOOD NEWS

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

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

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

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

***REALLY?!

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

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

10 Scientific Benefits of Kissing Mental Floss

***ART & DESIGN

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

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

***MUSIC

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

Brazilian bossa nova pioneer Joao Gilberto dies at 88 Associated Press

***THE BUSINESS OF MEDIA

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

***SEXUAL HARASSMENT & ASSAULT

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

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

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

***BORDER ISSUES

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

Federal Agents Joked About Migrant Deaths, Propublica Reports NPR

Hispanic evangelical group offers to help migrant children Baptist Standard

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

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

Hispanic evangelical group offers to help migrant children Baptist Standard

***BUSINESS & FINANCE

The art of selling scent in the internet age Fast Company

How accessible technology is overcoming barriers in the workplace Verdict

***ENVIRONMENT

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

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

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

***HEALTH

What the Measles Epidemic Really Says About America The Atlantic

Can Sunscreen Really Repair Your DNA? Wired

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

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

***HEALTH RESEARCH & TECHNOLOGY

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

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

***TRAVEL

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

***SPORTS & GAMES

The future of sports gambling The Week

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

***FOOD

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

Italian Chefs React In Relative Horror At YouTubers Making Pesto Dig

Scientists Engineer A Smooth, Beanless Coffee NPR

The Changing American Diet Flowing Data

***ANIMALS

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

Why Are Octopuses So Smart? The Atlantic

***PSYCHOLOGY

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

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

***NEUROSCIENCE

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

Could Lab-Grown Brains Develop Consciousness? Singularity Hub

Does Consciousness Exist Outside of the Brain? Psychology Today

Scientists are giving dead brains new life New York Times

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

***PHILOSOPHY

Plagiarizing articles in philosophy Wiley Online

***HISTORY

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

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

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

Review of The Weather Machine By Andrew Blum Economist

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

***CHINA

Inside the fight for Hong Kong Macleans

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

Taiwan’s Status is a Geopolitical Absurdity The Atlantic

***POLITICS

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

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

***RESEARCH

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

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

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

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

***HIGHER ED

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

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

The Education Deserts of Rural America The Atlantic

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

The Education Deserts of Rural America The Atlantic

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

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

ASU tries to boost Degree Completion With Blockchain Inside Higher Ed

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

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

Are Small Private Colleges Worth the Money? The Atlantic

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

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

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

***ACADEMIC LIFE

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

I Help People Cheat Their Way to Getting PhDs Vice

***STUDENT LIFE

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

Millennials Rely On Parents For Financial Help, Study Shows NPR

July 09, 2019

Anchoring

July 09, 2019/ Stephen Goforth

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

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

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

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

Nassim Taleb, The Black Swain

July 04, 2019

what makes you come alive

July 04, 2019/ Stephen Goforth

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

July 03, 2019

The Promotion Curse

July 03, 2019/ Stephen Goforth

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

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

The Economist’s Bartleby column

July 02, 2019

where you slipped

July 02, 2019/ Stephen Goforth

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

June 29, 2019

education

June 29, 2019/ Stephen Goforth

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

June 27, 2019

the Resistance

June 27, 2019/ Stephen Goforth

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

June 26, 2019

The Adventure Risk

June 26, 2019/ Stephen Goforth

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

Stephen Goforth

June 25, 2019

invincible?

June 25, 2019/ Stephen Goforth

Whoever is winning at the moment will always seem to be invincible. -George Orwell (born June 25, 1903)

June 24, 2019

Articles of Interest - June 24

June 24, 2019/ Stephen Goforth

***TECHNOLOGY

The Invisible Battle for America’s Airwaves Popular Mechanics

Tesla Arcade Let’s You Play a Videogame Right in Your Car Wired

Ever Plugged A USB In Wrong? Of Course You Have. Here's Why NPR

***JOURNALISM

Trump threatens Time journalist with prison over photo BBC

Five NY1 anchors file age and gender discrimination lawsuit against the New York station CNN

***FAKE NEWS

"First-generation fact-checking” is no longer good enough. Here’s what comes next Harvard’s Nieman Lab

Identifying a fake picture online is harder than you might think The Conversation

Debunked: The absurd story about smartphones causing kids to sprout horns Ars Technica

How Do You Solve a Problem Like Deepfakes? The Fashion Law Blog

***BIG DATA & AI

Imminent quantum supremacy may turn out to have an important application after all Wired

Walmart is using AI-powered cameras to track theft in 1,000 stores: It’s called Missed Scan Detection technology Business Insider

Can AI spot early signs of schizophrenia? Science Daily

How machine learning can be used to drive experimental quantum physics discoveries Pyys.org

The concept of the data lake has edged its way into wider business strategy for many orgs IT Proportal

***SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media can hurt. Here are 6 ways to reduce its harms Fast Company

Facebook wants to create a worldwide digital currency Libra could be massively disruptive—including to the social network itself Economist

If Slack is so good, why are so many companies trying to fix it? Vox

Instagram Advertising By Micro-Influencers: Do You Know It, When You See It? NPR

***TIKTOK

Meet TikTok: How The Washington Post, NBC News, and The Dallas Morning News are using the of-the-moment platform Harvard’s Nieman Lab

TikTok Has A Predator Problem. A Network Of Young Women Is Fighting Back BuzzFeed News

Brands and advertisers are scrambling to tap into TikTok Fast Company

***PRIVACY & SECURITY

I’m a journalist but I didn’t fully realize the terrible power of US Border officials until they violated my rights and privacy The Intercept

Google Chrone has become Surveillance Software Washington Post

Florida city pays $600,000 ransom to save computer records - single employee clicked on an email link that allowed them to upload malware Associated Press

***PRODUCING MEDIA

NASA releases 140,000 high-resolution photos from its archives This is Colossal

Tools to fix your noisy video chats, send emails with confidence and improve your newsletters Poynter

***INTERNET

How the pursuit of leisure drives internet use Economist

Is Firefox better than Chrome? It comes down to privacy The Washington Post

The Most Visited Websites In The World, Visualized Digg

***PERSONAL GROWTH

Your career as a Painting not a Ladder Becoming (my blog)

What Advice Would You Give Your Younger Self?: What Research Shows, and What You Have to Say Open Culture

Gardening Fixes Everything Forge

***LANGUAGE

Latin is dead—yet it also lives on Economist

The Lost Words: An Illustrated Dictionary of Poetic Spells Reclaiming the Language of Nature Brain Pickings

How to change a word’s meaning: misogyny Economist

***POETRY

Poetry paints a lyrical picture of Canada The Record

‘The spirit of activism has always been in LA poetry’ KCRW

Reviving Northern Ireland's poetry scene one poem at a time BBC

‘Dreaming of Stones’: Poetry collection offers spiritual solace Chicago Tribune

The Last Love Poem I Will Ever Write’ and other best poetry of the month Washington Post

***POETS

Meet Joy Harjo, The First Native American U.S. Poet Laureate NPR

How Erasmus Darwin’s Poetry Prophesied Evolutionary Theory The Wire

Eve L. Ewing on ‘1919,’ her new poetry collection about Chicago’s little-known race riot Chicago Tribune

Psychiatric survivor Mel Starkman turned his experiences into poetry and activism The Globe

***LEGAL ISSUES

What the google-genius copyright dispute is really about Wired

How 25 countries in the Americas could end up allowing gay marriage Economist

Who owns song lyrics on the internet? It's complicated Wired

Supreme Court Strikes Down Ban on Scandalous Trademark Registrations Hollywood

***CRIME

What it’s like to spend half a life in solitary confinement Economist

Supreme Court rules 'crime of violence' law is unconstitutionally vague UPI

***RELIGION

'Throughline' Traces Evangelicals' History On The Abortion Issue NPR

Southern Baptist leader allegedly told woman her rape was a ‘good thing,’ according to lawsuit Houston Chronicle

Supreme Court: Cross Can Stand On Public Land In Separation Of Church And State Case NPR

Netflix says it won't 'make any more' episodes of Amazon Prime's 'Good Omens' after Christian petition The Hill

Man who says he founded ‘Biblical Flat Earth Society’ busted on 56 counts of child sexual exploitation News Observer

Dying churches merging with megachurches a growing trend, some oppose 'drastic change' Christian Post

Did Oxford Scholar Secretly Sell Bible Fragment to Hobby Lobby Family? The Daily Beat

After refusing archdiocese’s order to fire gay teacher, school is told it will no longer be recognized as Catholic Washington Post

China tariffs could lead to a ‘Bible tax’ in the US, say Christian publishers Religious News Service

My Pastor Bought a Brand New Sports Car (music video)

***RELIGION AND POLITICS

Is the Religious Right Privileged? (opinion) The New York Times

‘Hail Satan’ prayer at Alaska gov’t meeting sparks protest The Washington Post

***RELIGION & LGBTQ

LGBTQ Movement's Culture War With The Religious Right Persists NPR

Cracker Barrel bans an anti-gay pastor from holding an event in one of its stores CNN

***GOOD NEWS

A young girl was afraid of IVs. So she invented a teddy bear to disguise them CNN

Nursing student honored for her role in saving 3-year-old's life Local 10

***REALLY?!

North Alabama ‘attack squirrel’ suspect posts video while on the run...with another squirrel WAFF-TV

Seagulls keep couple hostage in their own home for six days by attacking them every time they leave house Telegraph

103-Year-Old Sprinter Sets Senior World Record In New Mexico NPR

Minor league outfielder forgets score, tosses ball in play into the stands, costs team game Golf Digest

Alaskans Attend Reindeer Yoga Classes NPR

***ART & DESIGN

Researchers find a way to use minute samples to detect forged paintings Economist

Pistol that Van Gogh used to shoot himself sells for $145,000 Reuters

5 keys to accessible web typography Better WebType

Fold-up kayak is a work of oar-igami art Wired

***MUSIC

Bruce Springsteen and Led Zeppelin Riffs Might Be Up For Grabs Bloomberg

His Biggest Hit Sold More Copies Than Any of the Beatles’. So Why Haven’t You Heard of Him? Narratively

A musicologist explains the science behind your taste in music NBC News

***FREELANCING

Reporting on the homeless, solution journalism features and timely art and culture pieces Los Angeleno

branded content USA Today

Pitches for investigative reporting projects related to global trade and environmental crisis Mongabay

***SEXUAL HARASSMENT & ASSAULT

How facial recognition is fighting child sex trafficking Wired

HR Isn’t Stopping Workplace Sexual Harassment The Atlantic

***BORDER ISSUES

Texas Republican says conditions in migrant detention centers are worst he's ever seen Axios

Lawyers claim infants, children are in dangerous situation at border detention site NBC News

Migrant children describe neglect at Texas border facility Associated Press

1st-Generation Mexican American Aids Migrants In The Desert NPR

Why Sarah Fabian Argued Against Giving Kids Toothbrushes The Atlantic

***BUSINESS & FINANCE

The promotion curse: Updating the Peter principle Economist

This Japanese Company Charges Its Staff $100 an Hour to Use Conference Rooms Bloomberg

Toxic workplaces can be found in every sector Economist

Millions of Business Listings on Google Maps Are Fake—and Google Profits (sub. req’ed) WSJ

California and Texas have different visions for America’s future Economist

The share of US job posts offering unlimited vacation is up sharply Quartz

***ENVIRONMENT

Scientists discover sea of fresh water under the ocean Quartz

State of Alabama permitted 3M to release toxic chemicals into Tennessee River for years, records show WHNT-TV

633 divers set world record cleaning ocean floor off Deerfield Beach Orlando Sentinel

How spy satellite info is providing a historical record to track climate changes NPR

***HEALTH

Ranking the Best Children's Hospitals US News

Here’s How to Get Stronger After 50 Outside

The Hidden Cost of GoFundMe Health Care New Yorker

New Sex Drug for Women to Improve Low Libido Is Approved by the F.D.A. New York Times

How A Break From Alcohol Influences Health NPR

***TRAVEL

Foreign travellers to America face scrutiny of their online activity Economist

Around the World in 80 Sandwiches The Thrillist

The 10 best travel experiences around the world, ranked by TripAdvisor USA Today

How to be a better tourist BBC

11 Tips for Traveling With Your Pet, According to a Veterinarian Mental Floss

***FOOD

Don't Buy Another Piece Of Cheap Meat Until You Watch This Mashed

How The Chow Mein Sandwich Claimed A Small Slice Of New England History NPR

***FAMILY

5 facts about same-sex marriage Pew Research Center

Couples who meet online are more diverse than those who meet in other ways, largely because they’re younger Pew Research Center

***ANIMALS

You Were Probably Forced To Read A Book About A Dog Dying In Grade School And We'll Never Know Why Buzzfeed News

The startup Bark has the most dog-friendly office ever Fast Company

Legalized Marijuana May Be Increasing Pot's Hazard To Pets NPR

Pets have gained the upper paw over their so-called owners Economist

Stopping bees swapping hives keeps disease down and productivity up Economist

Giant Squid, Phantom of the Deep, Reappears on Video The New York Times

***SCIENCE

It's quiet out there: scientists fail to hear signals of alien life The Guardian

A theory of information that could explain living systems Aeon

***PSYCHOLOGY

Understanding Microsleep — When Our Minds Are Both Asleep and Awake The Crux

Machine learning predicts psychosis from subtle changes in word choices Medgadget

Neuroscience Study Explains Why We Go Down the Wikipedia Rabbit Hole Inverse

***HISTORY

The gay first lady wrote love letters to her longtime partner The Washington Post

A Crispy, Salty, American History of Fast Food Smithsonian

***POLITICS

How White Politicians Can Talk About Race NPR

Knitting Site Bans the Support of Donald Trump The Cut

Study: Americans have little understanding of their political adversaries The Atlantic

***HIGHER ED

Audit says CSU stashed away $1.5 billion and raised tuition 10 News

What It’s Like When Your College Shuts Down The Atlantic

Soaring college costs crushed millennials once, and their kids are next NJ.com

University President Orders Lady Gaga taken down: Explanation angers many on campus Inside Higher Ed

Tools to fix your noisy video chats, send emails with confidence and improve your newsletters Poynter

With skills mapping, colleges create a 'universal language' to explain value Ed Dive

Designing Meaningful and Measurable Outcomes: A First Step in Backwards Design Faculty Focus

How cut-rate SoBe hostel launched Jerry Falwell Jr. ‘pool boy’ saga, naked picture hunt Miami Herald

Taylor University president resigns after hosting VP Pence as commencement speaker Religious News Service

***TEACHING

Professor requires his students to check in for class on a new app he developed Inside Higher Ed

Teaching without Talking Faculty Focus

What Grades Mean New York Times

***STUDENT LIFE

Our Top 6 Pieces of Career Wisdom for New Grads (and Everyone Else Too) First Round Review

Students Provide Guides For Paying For College NPR

How Dorm Rooms Can Affect Grades Inside Higher Ed

Study: More than 40% of young people ditch deodorant Fox 43

9 College Hashtags That Every Student Should Follow Study Breaks

***ACADEMIC LIFE

Things I Have Suffered While a Visiting Assistant Professor in Central Maine

Professor sues Wesleyan U, saying it failed to act against students who falsely called him a "sexual predator" for two years Inside Higher Ed

June 23, 2019

inner peace

June 23, 2019/ Stephen Goforth

Because nothing promotes inner peace like being bombarded with a constant stream of information about other people’s lives. -Markoff Chaney

June 22, 2019

The Chains of Victimhood

June 22, 2019/ Stephen Goforth

Glorying in victimhood is a favorite path for people hurt in relationships (especially the divorced). When someone has been wronged (and wronged many times), it is easy to keep seeing life through those pain-filled moments and “define” yourself by what others have done to you. Instead of moving on and creating your own identity, your past pain becomes an excuse for not taking responsibly for today.. and a means to gain sympathy. When you meet new people, you find yourself quickly working your way to an explanation of what happened. You want it front and center so that others to see you in that light. You want that shadow of the past to fall over your face when they look at you. How much better it is to let them get to know the person you have become rather than what you once were! It’s a risky but healthy step toward breaking the chains of victimhood.

Stephen Goforth

June 21, 2019

How I take sorrow

June 21, 2019/ Stephen Goforth

As to how I take sorrow, the answer is 'In nearly all the possible ways’. Because, as you probably know, it isn't a state but a process. It keeps on changing — like a winding road with quite a new landscape at each bend. -C.S. Lewis

June 20, 2019

Do you like Cake? Delaying gratification

June 20, 2019/ Stephen Goforth

“Delaying gratification is a process of scheduling the pain and pleasure of life in such a way as to enhance the pleasure by meeting and experience the pain first and getting it over with. It is the only decent way to live.” ~ M Scott Peck, The Road Less Traveled

A financial analyst was locked into a cycle of procrastination.

Peck asked, "Do you like cake?" She replied that she did.

"What part of the cake do you like better, the cake or the frosting?"

"Oh, the frosting!"

"And how do you eat a piece of cake?"

"I eat the frosting first, of course."

Having gained this insight, Dr. Peck started probing her work habits. Invariably she would devote the first hour or so of each day to the most gratifying and easiest of her tasks and the remaining hours never quite accomplishing the more onerous chores. He suggested that she force herself to do the objectionable tasks during the first two hours, then enjoy the remaining time.

There is a critical moment early in your day when you make the decision as to whether you will plunge into the difficult tasks in front of you or not. Don’t allow yourself to decide – just act. When taking the easy road is not an option, and you just plunge into the difficult tasks, you save yourself time and energy.. and make it easier to avoid those detours.