Know-it-alls can be insufferable, and now there’s new evidence that they know less than they’d have you believe. Researchers from Cornell and Tulane universities found that self-proclaimed experts are more prone to “overclaiming”—essentially, pretending to have extensive knowledge of something they’re clueless about. In the study, 100 volunteers were asked to rate their level of knowledge in various subjects, such as biology, literature, and personal finance. When quizzed on 15 different economic terms, the people who fancied themselves financial gurus were far more likely to claim they were familiar with phenomena such as “pre-rated stocks” and “fixed-rate deduction” that were actually complete fictions. Tests on the other topics revealed similar results—even when participants were warned that some terms would be phony. “Our work suggests that the seemingly straightforward task of judging one’s knowledge may not be so simple,” researcher Stav Atir tells Science Daily, “particularly for individuals who believe they have a relatively high level of knowledge to begin with.”

The Week Magazine, August 7, 2015

June 11, 2020

trouble

June 11, 2020/ Stephen Goforth

I've never known any trouble that an hour's reading didn't assuage. -Charles De Secondat

June 10, 2020

Try Doing Less

June 10, 2020/ Stephen Goforth

When you stop doing the things that make you feel busy but aren’t getting you results (and are draining you of energy), then you end up with more than enough time for what matters and a sense of peace and spaciousness that constant activity has kept outside your reach. We need to identify what not to do. But this determination can’t be random. It must be methodical and evidence-based. For instance, if you’re looking to connect more with your children, you might list a few specific memories or “wins” when you really felt like you were being the best parent you could.

Often the things we think we “must” do are simply because we always have done them or others around us do them and we think we should, too.

Kate Northrup writing in the Harvard Business Review

June 09, 2020

Tuesday Tech Tools: Science News Sites

June 09, 2020/ Stephen Goforth

Here are some sites that are fairly reliable on science news. Checking them from time-to-time will give you an idea as to what is being talked about among the science-interested public.

Aeon - https://aeon.co/

BBC Future - https://www.bbc.com/future

The Conversation - https://theconversation.com/us

Live Science - https://www.livescience.com/

Massive Science - https://massivesci.com/

Multibriefs - https://exclusive.multibriefs.com/

The Naked Scientist - https://www.thenakedscientists.com/

NY Times Health - https://www.nytimes.com/section/health

NY Times Science - https://www.nytimes.com/section/science

The Pudding - https://pudding.cool/

Retraction Watch - https://retractionwatch.com

Reveal News - https://revealnews.org/

Scholarly Kitchen - https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/

Science Central - https://www.scicentral.com/

Science News for Students - http://sciencenewsforstudents.org/

Stat News - https://www.statnews.com/

Study Finds - https://www.studyfinds.org/

Undark - https://undark.org/

The Walrus - https://thewalrus.ca/

June 08, 2020

Articles of Interest about higher ed - June 8

June 08, 2020/ Stephen Goforth

***HIGHER ED & THE VIRUS

More universities report coronavirus cases in athletics programs

Are Face Shields Better Than Masks For Coronavirus? (video)

Australian universities to close campuses and shed thousands of jobs as revenue plummets due to Covid-19 crisis

Some Colleges Are Closing Permanently Because of the Coronavirus Pandemic

How the Coronavirus Crisis Makes the Best Case Yet for Free College Tuition

How small colleges are working with local hospitals to coordinate COVID-19 testing and tracing efforts

***THE FALL SEMESTER

For private colleges, the picture shifts from (terrible) survey results to the actual totals and they aren't all terrible

To Reopen Campus, Colleges Prepare To Take On Contagious Students

Should Colleges Have Liability Protection?

Sticker shock: Is an elite college worth the price if it's online? Or at all?

West Virginia to require virus testing before fall classes

Students might have to stay in 'protective bubble'

USC to resume in-person classes in August with mandatory face coverings, physical distancing

Some College-Bound Students In The U.S. Are Thinking Of Taking A Gap Year

Lawyers Lay Out Legal Issues Colleges Face This Fall

Harvard Law School Will Be Online-Only In The Fall, Harvard’s Entering MBA Class Is Down Nearly 25%

Texas colleges expect larger online summer classes as students lose jobs, internships

Clemson University on track to increase enrollment this fall despite coronavirus

The University of Alabama system's plan to use a tracking app to manage the virus on campus

***COLLEGE FINANCE

Survey Warns of ‘Dramatic Decline’ in College Fundraising

Enrollments Could Rise While Tuition Revenue Falls, Moody’s Says

Kent State University ups tuition $225 per semester for incoming Kent campus freshmen

***HIGHER ED

How colleges can help the newly unemployed

Community College Systems to Review Police Training

Asia's Higher Ed Demographic Cliff

America’s Top Colleges Are Karens

A college where the graduation rate for black students has been zero percent — for years

University of Kentucky to remove controversial Memorial Hall mural from campus

***TEACHING ONLINE

WSJ: Students and teachers flunked remote learning

Ed experts believe that distance learning in most school districts is not working & that students are falling behind

***ACADEMIC LIFE

Miami professor accused of making racist remarks at protesters

Racism accusations lead to ASU pulling journalism school dean job offer

University to Investigate Lecturer for Reading MLK's Letter from Birmingham Jail

University of North Carolina Wilmington calls professor's tweets 'vile and inexcusable' following growing backlash online

How Reciprocal Teaching Can Transform Your Remote Faculty Meeting

Professor resigns after criticizing protesters, and another faces calls for his termination

In the rush to bring students to campus, professors ask: What about us?

Weber State professor resigns after tweeting threats at those involved in police protests

Trying to help faculty members improve during a pandemic

***CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS

Cal Lutheran is giving any student who registered for an AP test this spring the full credit for the course takers

Tension, tears as protesters target Liberty University

Christian university to host George Floyd memorial service in Minneapolis Thursday

8th president of Cal Lutheran selected

Trevecca Nazarene University to start Fall 2020 semester early, end before Thanksgiving

Southwest Baptist University eliminating positions, adopting sustainability plan

Thomas More University names Dr. Molly Smith its first provost after national search

***RESEARCH

The Lancet has made one of the biggest retractions in modern history. How could this happen? Peer review

Evaluating equity in scholarly publishing

Will the pandemic permanently alter scientific publishing?

***STUDENT LIFE

More Students Are ‘Stacking’ Credentials en Route to a Degree

New COVID-19 scam targets college students

5 things you probably don't know about taking a gap year

Students Demand Campuses Cut Ties With Police but few have

***CAMPUS POLICE

Police Fired for Injuring Spelman and Morehouse Students

Troy University suspends police chief over George Floyd comments

***SEXUAL HARASSMENT & ASSAULT

Employment law issues in the new Title IX rules

Federal Appeals Court Defines 'Fairness' in Title IX Policies

States sue to block DeVos' campus sexual assault overhaul

June 08, 2020

Dad of toddler in viral hugging video speaks out: 'It's a beacon of hope'

June 08, 2020/ Stephen Goforth

Two children from a heartwarming viral video cat ch up with each other over video. Read more about the story from NBC’s Today Show. #goodnews

June 08, 2020

Why Video Conferencing is Exhausting

June 08, 2020/ Stephen Goforth

Video chats mean we need to work harder to process non-verbal cues like facial expressions, the tone and pitch of the voice, and body language; paying more attention to these consumes a lot of energy. “Our minds are together when our bodies feel we're not. That dissonance, which causes people to have conflicting feelings, is exhausting. You cannot relax into the conversation naturally,” according to Gianpiero Petriglieri.

Silence is another challenge, he adds. “Silence creates a natural rhythm in a real-life conversation. However, when it happens in a video call, you became anxious about the technology.” It also makes people uncomfortable. Even delays of 1.2 seconds made people perceive the responder as less friendly or focused.

An added factor—we are very aware of being watched. You are on stage, so there comes the social pressure and feeling like you need to perform. Being performative is nerve-wracking and more stressful. It’s also very hard for people not to look at their own face if they can see it on screen, or not to be conscious of how they behave in front of the camera.

A teen who spent 10 hours cleaning up after a protest is given full scholarship, car and insurance

June 07, 2020/ Stephen Goforth

Buffalo's WKBW-TV has a video report. #goodnews

June 07, 2020

Articles of interest about the virus, journalism, writing, & fakes - June 7

June 07, 2020/ Stephen Goforth

***THE VIRUS

Should I Buy a Copper Face Mask? Does Copper Provide Protection Against COVID-19?

Doctors rank the activities most likely to spread the coronavirus

Coronavirus drugmakers' latest tactics: Science by press release

From hair salons to gyms, experts rank 36 activities by coronavirus risk level

Which kind of face mask is the best protection against coronavirus?

Can you catch COVID-19 from delivered packages?

A Monday Is a Tuesday Is a Sunday as COVID-19 Disrupts Internal Clock

***JOURNALISTS & THE PROTESTS

NY Police shove, make AP journalists stop covering protest

United States added to list of most dangerous countries for journalists for first time

U.S. police have attacked journalists at least 100 times in the past four days

Journalists covering protests targeted

Texas journalist loses eye to tear gas canister during demonstrations against George Floyd's death

Louisville TV Reporter Shot By Police During Live Broadcast Covering Street

Journalists are being attacked while doing their jobs

Covering a protest? Know your rights

Journalists at times targeted by police during protests in Detroit

Conservative reporter in video pretending to board up a Santa Monica business has been fired

Ohio State student journalists told police they were media. Then police sprayed them. ($)

***JOURNALISM RESOURCES

Know your rights when covering a protest

3 Web Tools That Can Help in Idea Generation and Research

8 great online learning resources for journalists and journalism educators

Safety Advisory: Covering U.S. protests over police violence

***THE BUSINESS OF JOURNALISM

Microsoft lays off journalists to replace them with AI

On this date in 1980: CNN launches

***FAKES & FRAUDS

Texas county GOP leaders share conspiracy theories about George Floyd's death

How these filmmakers concocted a viral coronavirus conspiracy video

28% of Americans are very confident they could fact-check COVID-19 news

LA Sues California Company, Alleging 'Sophisticated' COVID-19 Fraud

What Happens If You Click A Link On A Phishing Email?

Australian anti-vaxxers label Covid-19 a 'scam' and break distancing rules at anti-5G protests

A guide to fighting lies, fake news, and chaos online

Evangelicals split on the notion of 'fake news' and QAnon

Sid Miller falsely says George Soros orchestrated George Floyd protests

***WRITING & READING

7 Pieces of Reading Advice From History’s Greatest Minds

Lawsuit over online book lending could bankrupt Internet Archive

Albert Einstein Explains Why We Need to Read the Classics

Two-Thirds Of The Population Can’t Find The Grammar Mistakes In These Sentences — Can You?

***SOCIAL MEDIA

Satirical websites are testing Facebook's policy on not being the 'arbiter of truth' by running false headlines claiming Mark Zuckerberg is dead or abusive

Facebook is a hotbed for violent extremism and it doesn't seem to care

***LANGUAGE

Words matter when talking about race and unrest, experts say

Study of Cantonese lexical tone shows language evolution possibly linked to genes

***PRIVACY & SECURITY

Cybersecurity warning: Hackers are targeting your smartphone as way into the company network

The Government is Regularly Flying Predator Drones Over American Cities

***PRODUCING MEDIA

PhotoRoom automagically removes background from your photo

June 06, 2020

Smart People

June 06, 2020/ Stephen Goforth

Smart people pawn their troubles – and then lose the ticket.

June 05, 2020

9-year-old receives award for building hand-washing machine

June 05, 2020/ Stephen Goforth

June 05, 2020

unduly influenced by outside suggestion

June 05, 2020/ Stephen Goforth

Referees favour home teams in judgment calls, particularly those that happen at a crucial stage in a game. If a batter chooses not to swing at a baseball pitch, the pitch is more likely to be called a strike if the home team is pitching. This tendency is most extreme in close games. In soccer, referees are more likely to award penalties to the home team, hand out fewer punishments for offences to home players.

Are referees deliberately biased? The authors (of Scorecasting) think not. Instead, they blame the fact that referees, like the rest of us, tend subconsciously to rely on crowdsourcing, picking up on the mood of the crowd when making their decision.

“Anchoring” is the name economists give to people’s tendency to be unduly influenced by outside suggestion. Take away the crowd and the home bias shrinks, as it did a few years back when 21 Italian soccer matches were played without supporters following incidents of crowd violence. In these games the home bias declined by 23% on fouls called, by 26% for yellow cards and by a remarkable 70% for red cards, which remove a player from the game and have a particularly big impact on the result.

From The Referee's an Anchor in The Economist

June 04, 2020

3-Year-Old Boy Helps Save Elderly Neighbor Trapped In Basement For Days

June 04, 2020/ Stephen Goforth

WBZ-TV in New Hampshire has a video report.

June 04, 2020

Facing Trouble

June 04, 2020/ Stephen Goforth

The poor and the marginalized expect suffering, they know that life on this earth is “nasty, brutish, and short.” Successful people are much more shocked and overwhelmed by troubles. - Timothy Keller

June 03, 2020

If you go to bed angry

June 03, 2020/ Stephen Goforth

If you go to sleep after a fight with someone, you may “preserve” those emotions. That’s the finding of researchers at the University of Massachusetts. Scientists showed images (some positive, some negative) to more than 100 people and checked 12 hours later to see which pictures stuck with the subjects. The response changed depending as to whether the person had slept during the 12-hour break or not. Sleeping seemed to protect the emotional response. You can read the details in The Journal of Neuroscience.

Other studies have also support the idea that sleep enhances emotional memories. If you have difficulty sleeping after an upsetting day, it could be your mind’s way of trying to avoid storing that memory. It’s a reminder of the Bible verse that reads, “Let not the sun go down upon your wrath” (Eph. 4:26).

Stephen Goforth