Articles of interest about the virus, journalism, fakes and more - August 8

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***THE VIRUS

We'll Be Out of This Pandemic By End of 2021, Says Bill Gates ($)

Google and Harvard release COVID-19 prediction models

Covid-19 will be painful for universities, but also bring change

***GRAMMAR

The mysterious origins of punctuation

What helped Ed Yong write the sentence of the year?

***JOURNALISM 

NAHJ Launches Cultural Competence Handbook

Ideas for covering the coronavirus’ impact on people of color and the poor

The News Junkies of the Eighteenth Century

Survey of American beliefs about the news media

How the DHS Can Still Arrest Journalists in Portland

The modern dilemma of TikTok journalism 

City Attorney opens, quickly closes criminal investigation into records leak to San Diego Journalist

***THE BUSINESS OF JOURNALISM

Journalists’ Twitter use shows them talking within smaller bubbles  

***FAKES & FRAUDS

Trump, QAnon and The Return of Magic (video)

QAnon's 2020 resurgence

***SOCIAL MEDIA  

Facebook hate-speech boycott had little effect on revenue 

Twitter is letting all users limit replies to their tweets on iOS

***LANGUAGE 

Tracing the etymology of “abstract”: Abstract Art vs. a Scientific Abstract 

Scientists discover brain hack that improves language abilities by 13% 

***POETRY

 Five high schoolers named National Student Poets

Here's why you shouldn't give up on poetry 

***PRIVACY & SECURITY 

The hidden trackers in your phone, explained

Phishing campaigns, from first to last victim, take 21h on average 

***PRODUCING MEDIA 

How to take a screenshot on a Google Chrome browser in 4 different ways, using a simple trick

 An in-depth guide to choosing a VPN

Baby Steps

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Many of us.. have great dreams and ambitions. Caught up in the emotions of our dreams and the vastness of our desires, we find it very difficult to focus on the small, tedious steps usually necessary to attain them. We tend to think in terms of giant leaps toward our goals. But in the social world as in nature, anything of size and stability grows slowly. The piecemeal strategy is the perfect antidote to our natural impatience: it forces us to think in terms of a process, a sequence of connected steps and actions, no matter how small, which has immeasurable psychological benefits as well. Too often the magnitude of our desires overwhelms us; taking that small firs step makes them seem realizable. There is nothing more therapeutic than action.

In plotting this strategy, be attentive to sudden opportunities and to your enemies momentary crises and weaknesses Do not be tempted however, to try to take anything large; bite off more than you can chew and you will be consumed with problems and disproportionately discouraged if you fail to cope with them.

Robert Greene
The 33 Strategies of War

Articles of interest about higher ed - August 4

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***THE VIRUS

We Still Don't Know All the Long-Term Consequences of 'Mild' COVID

Do some people have protection against the coronavirus?

Nobody Accurately Tracks Health Care Workers Lost to COVID-19. So She Stays Up At Night Cataloging the Dead.

Here’s what early COVID-19 symptoms may tell you about how sick you’re going to get

Does coronavirus linger in the body?

Can My Boss Make Me Promise I Don’t Have Covid-19 Symptoms?

***HIGHER ED & THE VIRUS

More Than 6,600 Coronavirus Cases Have Been Linked to U.S. Colleges 

Virginia Tech mandates COVID-19 tests for on-campus students, stays mum on athletes

Coronavirus outbreak at USC’s fraternity row leaves at least 40 people infected

Colleges Are Forgetting the People Who Make Them Run

***THE FALL SEMESTER 

Covid Tests and Quarantines: Colleges Brace for an Uncertain Fall ($)

Students asked to sign liability waivers to return to campus

Students can safely return to college if tested for coronavirus every two days, study says ($)

Colleges reverse decisions to open in person

'The virus beat us': Colleges are increasingly going online for fall 2020 semester as COVID-19 cases rise

***FALL PLANS AT SPECIFIC SCHOOLS 

Unity College Permanently Eliminates Two-Semester Campus Model in Favor of Hybrid Approach

More Colleges Revise Fall Plans. Among The Latest: American University, Penn, William And Mary, And Ohio University

Before Returning To Campus, St. Xavier Faculty Must ‘Sign Here’ And Accept COVID-19 Risks

Georgetown University: First-year students not allowed on campus, online classes only this fall

What a return to class could look like at the University of North Georgia

University of San Diego drops plans to offer classes on campus this fall 

***COLLEGE SPORTS

CNN's Bob Costas: 'Unconscionable' for unpaid college football players to play during pandemic

 ***HIGHER ED 

Who Is Ruining Our Universities? Administrators!!

University of Arizona acquires Ashford University

College football tailgates, frat parties are 'major risk factors' for COVID-19 spread this fall, experts warn

***COLLEGE FINANCE

As the pandemic upends higher education, is residential college worth the cost?

 ***HIGHER ED IN COURT

Utah State University sued over expulsion of student with Down syndrome

With petitions and lawsuits, some students demand lower tuition for online instruction

Judge: Lawsuit against U-M for switching to online classes can continue 

Family of Teen Who Died at WSU Fraternity Files Lawsuit

***TEACHING ONLINE 

Coronavirus: Remote learning turns kids into zombies because we're doing it all wrong

***ONLINE CHEATING 

Using Online Cheating as a Teachable Moment for Students and Educators 

***ACADEMIC LIFE 

UNC Chapel Hill faculty to students: stay home

Auburn lecturer’s anti-cop tweets ‘inexcusable’ as university ‘continues to assess’ his future

Political science professor disciplined for refusing diversity training

***CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS  

Point Loma Nazarene University drops plans for in-person classes, will stay online

Former University of Lynchburg students call on school to cut ties with Liberty University, remove Falwell name from dorm terrace

***RESEARCH 

Reflections on bad research, scientism, the importance of description, and the challenge of negativity 

It Takes Great Discipline to Read a Scientific Paper – and Even More to Write One

Will COVID-19 mark the end of scientific publishing as we know it?

Why Professors Are Writing Crap That Nobody Reads (opinion)

Researchers, peer reviewers, and editors should take action to flatten the curve of secondary articles

Paper called “unscholarly, overtly racist” earns an editor’s note

Self-promotion Journals

***STUDENT LIFE

How to Go to College During a Pandemic

Colleges Lease Hotel Rooms for Students 

How College Students Are Using Social Media to Expose Racism 

Members Of The Class Of 2020 Face A Brutal Job Market

Arizona parents asked to sign COVID-19 waivers before sending kids back to school

***SEXUAL HARASSMENT & ASSAULT

University of Minnesota changes how it handles campus sexual misconduct complaints

University of Michigan's provost was “serial harasser”

***RACIAL ISSUES ON CAMPUS 

UB removes Millard Fillmore, other names from campus

The Fabric is Torn in Oxford’: Ole Miss Officials Decried Racism Publicly, Coddled it Privately

Former Palomar College president alleged race, gender discrimination in complaint 

Humility

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Do not imagine that if you meet a really humble man he will be what most people CALL ‘humble’ nowadays: he will not be a greasy, smarmy person, who is always telling you that, of course, he is nobody. Probably all you will think about him is that he seemed a cheerful, intelligent chap who took a real interest in what you said to him. If you do dislike him it will be because you feel a bit envious of anyone who seems to enjoy life so easily. He will not be thinking about humility: he will not be thinking about himself at all.

CS Lewis, Mere Christianity

Articles of interest about the virus & religion - August 2

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How Birth Order affects you

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Everyone takes it personally when it comes to birth order. 

Children and parents alike are profoundly affected by the constellations of siblings.. But that doesn’t mean the effects of birth order are as clear or straightforward as we sometimes make them sound. Indeed, birth order can be used to explain every trait and its precise opposite. I’m competitive, driven — typical oldest child! My brother, two years younger, is even more competitive, more driven — typical second child, always trying to catch up! 

“Too many parents are haunted by experiences both good and bad that they identify with their birth order,” said Dr. Peter A. Gorski, a professor of pediatrics, public health and psychiatry at the University of South Florida. And that might lead them to classify their own children according to birth order, he went on, which in turn can lead to a sense of identification or even rejection and to “self-fulfilling prophecies.”

“Birth order doesn’t cause anything,” (says) Frank J. Sulloway, a visiting scholar at the University of California Berkeley Dr. Sulloway said. “It’s simply a proxy for the actual mechanisms that go on in family dynamics that shape character and personality.”

Now, of course birth order played into my patients’ patterns, but so did gender and birth spacing and, above all, temperament. 

"I wouldn’t discount the impact of birth order,” Dr. Gorski told me. “It sets up the structure of one’s place in relation to others from the beginning, as we learn how to react to people of different ages and different relationships.” 

Perri Klass writing in the New York Times

 

Articles of Interest about writing, journalism, fakes & more – July 30

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***WRITING & READING

How to Sell Books in 2020: Put Them Near the Toilet Paper

Four-year-old lands book deal for his 'astonishing' poetry

8 Writers on Finding a Literary Agent

Writing Historical Fiction As History Repeats Itself

The Physical Traits that Define Men and Women in Literature

***GRAMMAR 

Man faked death to avoid jail but typo gave him away

Did Rutgers University Declare Grammar ‘Racist’?

***JOURNALISM 

Publishers and Journalists on TikTok

Choi criticizes journalists for tweets about Jefferson statue issue

Prosecutor: No time for evidence against arrested reporter

A Judge Said Federal Officers Can’t Arrest Or Use Force Against Journalists In Portland

Press freedom incidents have surged during police protests

Law enforcement tear gasses, throws flash-bangs at high school journalist covering Portland BLM protests

***FAKES & FRAUDS

This clever Netflix scam attempts to steal your credit card information

How dubious psychology techniques have been misused in criminal investigations

Fake Signs Warning Campers Of Satanic Cult Activity, Animal Sacrifice Pop Up Around Big Bear Lake

Twitter bans 7,000 QAnon accounts, limits 150,000 others as part of broad crackdown

Why Conspiracy Theorists Think FEMA Is Building Camps to Imprison Americans

17 Fascinating Facts About Conspiracy Theories 

Testing of a tool for detecting image duplication shows it has potential but also triggers false alarms

***CORONAVIRUS CONSPIRACY THEORIES

25% in US see at least some truth in conspiracy theory that COVID-19 was planned

Snopes and coronavirus rumors: Debunking website can’t keep up with the misinformation 

Coronavirus: 'Deadly masks' claims debunked 

'COVID parties’ are a pandemic urban legend that won’t go away

Local TV stations across the country set to air discredited 'Plandemic' researcher's conspiracy theory about Fauci 

Coronavirus: Conspiracy Theories (John Oliver video)

An FBI hostage negotiator explains how to persuade people to wear masks

***SOCIAL MEDIA  

Facebook can see your web activity. Here's how to stop it 

The US is 'looking at' banning TikTok

***LANGUAGE

People are sharing common phrases that no longer reflect the action and it's eye-opening

***PRIVACY & SECURITY  

Rite Aid deployed facial recognition systems in hundreds of U.S. stores

Face masks are screwing up facial recognition software

***PRODUCING MEDIA

Some of the winners of this year's iPhone photography awards

Final Cut Pro X review

AP to equip all visual journalists globally with Sony Imaging products

Boy tells his dad 'I'm so proud of you'

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Sunk Cost Fallacy

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We all have seen the sunk cost fallacy in action at some point, whether it be sitting through that bad movie because we have already paid for it or finishing that awful book because we were already halfway through. Everyone has been in a situation where they ended up wasting more time because they were trying to salvage the time they had already invested. A sunk cost, also known as a retrospective cost, is one that has already been incurred and cannot be recovered by any additional action. The sunk cost fallacy refers to the tendency of human beings to make decisions based on how much of an investment they have already made, which leads to even more investment but no returns whatsoever. Sometimes, hard as it is, the best thing to do is to let go.

A way to save yourself from this cognitive bias is by focusing on future benefits and costs rather than the already lost past costs. You have to develop the habit, hard as it is, of ignoring the previous cost information.   

Rahul Agarwal writing in Built in

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