Science Is Truth Until It Isn’t

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No religion can claim all its priests are holy, so it’s probably not surprising that science can’t claim all its researchers are pure of heart. In most examples of scientific fraud, “follow the money” seems to answer the question “why?” For scientists lured to do fraudulent research for tobacco, energy or perpetual-motion companies, the capitalist money bags loom large – if not for direct personal gain, then at least for nice laboratories and tenured career paths at desirable universities. In these challenging times for higher education, science remains a career-driven field. A good reputation brings support and funding, and reputation is still built on that old cliché, “publish or perish”. Therein lies the constant temptation for a struggling or fame-seeking researcher to maybe tweak the data a little.

Thomas O’Dwyer writing in 3 Quarks Daily

Articles of interest about religion - March 18

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***COVID-19 

Why the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine can make you feel lousy 

The Pandemic and the Limits of Science 

Moderna begins testing next-generation coronavirus vaccine 

***RELIGION & CRIME

The Alleged Atlanta Shooter’s Church Tried to Disappear From the Internet

Christian leaders wrestle with Atlanta shooting suspect’s Southern Baptist ties

Church in Seattle hit with anti-Asian graffiti for fourth time this year

Founders of Mo. Christian Reform School Charged with Abuse After Daughter's Viral TikTok Videos

 ***THE BIBLE 

A new English-language edition of the Gospels

Dead Sea Scrolls discoveries are first ancient Bible texts to be found in 60 years

***RELIGION 

What It’s Like to Leave the Evangelical Community

Scholar and Biden adviser Jon Meacham joins National Cathedral as canon historian

***RELIGION AND CONSPIRACY THEORIES 

Pastors are leaving their congregations after losing their churchgoers to QAnon

***CHRISTIAN PUBLISHING  

Beth Moore Shakes Up Evangelical Publishing

***CATHOLIC CHURCH

LGBTQ Catholics stung by Vatican rebuff of same-sex unions

Catholic order commits to making $100 million in slavery reparations

Catholics React To Vatican Ban On Clergy Blessing Same-Sex Marriages

Catholic Leaders Voice Moral Concerns About Johnson & Johnson Vaccine

***CHRISTIAN SINGERS 

Kirk Franklin's son releases explicit audio of their conversation

Activist And Christian Hip-Hop Artist Remembers His Friend, George Floyd

Anthony Brown’s gospel music is about creating connections ($)

***RELIGION IN COURT

Supreme Court's COVID-19 cases stir up battle between religion, same-sex couples over foster care

Vimeo's Section 230 Win in Pastor's Discrimination Suit Affirmed by Appeals Court

***ISLAM

The youngest Muslim elected official in the country wants you to know her name 

***PASSED 

Evangelist Luis Palau dies at 86 

Christian scientist John Polkinghorne dies at 90

Equality Act is creating a historic face-off between religious exemptions and LGBTQ rights 

***CULTS 

"Cult City" Scientology tours rile Clearwater

Belgian Court hits Jehovah’s Witnesses with €96,000 fine for discrimination 

***RELIGION & LGBTQ ISSUES 

Amazon defends decision to remove conservative Christian scholar's book on transgenderism

72 Percent of Protestant Pastors View Trans Identity as 'Immoral'

Eugene Peterson authorized biography backs up that ‘yes’ on LGBTQ inclusion 

Learn to Expect

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Learn to expect, not to doubt. In so doing you bring everything into the realm of possibility. This does not mean that by believing you are necessarily going to get everything you want or think you want. Perhaps that would not be good for you. When you put your trust in God, He guides your mind so that you do not want things that are not good for you or that are inharmonious with God’s will. But it does definitely mean that when you learn to believe, then that which has seemingly been impossible moves into the area of the possible. Every great thing at last becomes for you a possibility. 

Norman Vincent Peale, The Power of Positive Thinking

Articles of interest about journalism, fakes, social media & more - March 15

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***COVID 19

Why We Can’t Make Vaccine Doses Any Faster

***JOURNALISM

When writing about race, abuse follows. Especially for journalists of color and women

How Yahoo News reached 1 million followers on TikTok in 1 year 

Journalists face record levels of persecution globally

News deserts and weak ethics laws allow corruption to run rampant in SC

***THE BUSINESS OF JOURNALISM

Most local papers are gasping for life, and if they die it will be their readers who lose the most

Less than a third of the world’s top editors at major outlets are women

America rebalances its post-Trump news diet 

BuzzFeed Announces Deep Cuts To HuffPost Staff After Acquisition

Donald Trump Loses Libel Suit Against N.Y. Times

***FREE SPEECH

Des Moines reporter's acquittal lauded as victory for press freedom

How the Russian government accidentally blocked its own websites 

***WRITING & READING 

List of Plagiarism Resources

Rod Serling talks to college students about the craft of writing

***FAKES, FRAUDS & SCAMS

They’re worried their mom is becoming a conspiracy theorist. She thinks they’re the ones living in a fantasy world ($)

How to stop robocalls: Every way we know to block the annoying scam phone calls 

Challenging anyone who spreads falsehoods is an important part of respecting the truth in both science and the wider world 

I went down the ‘rabbit hole’ to debunk misinformation – here’s what I learned

Russian intelligence reportedly used fake news sites to spread misinformation about coronavirus vaccines

***DEEP FAKES

Pa. woman created ‘deepfake’ videos to force rivals off daughter’s cheerleading squad: police

Slick Tom Cruise Deepfakes Signal That Near Flawless Forgeries May Be Here      

***COVID MISINFORMATION

YouTube removed 30,000 videos with COVID misinformation

QAnon groups switches focus to attacks on coronavirus vaccines

***SOCIAL MEDIA  

Hootsuite's Social Media Image

He got Facebook hooked on AI. Now he can't fix its misinformation addiction

How Different Are Americans’ Facebook Feeds?

Instagram led users to Covid misinformation amid pandemic – report 

Texas Wants to Ban Facebook and Twitter ... From Banning 

***PRIVACY & SECURITY 

Microsoft Confident Exchange Hack Is State-Sponsored Operation

Here's what we know so far about the massive Microsoft Exchange hack

Former Facebook insiders explain why FB is making such a big fuss over Apple's upcoming privacy change

***LANGUAGE

Meet the people fighting to keep a language alive online

***BOOKS & LITERATURE

50 Very Bad Book Covers for Literary Classics 

Want to borrow that e-book from the library? Sorry, Amazon won’t let you.

***POETRY

Why kids need poetry in their lives, and how to spark their interest in it

Margaret Atwood pens poetry for new songs about violence against women

How can I be useful to you?

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I used to ask my patients, "How can I help you? " But that kind of question makes them Humpty Dumpty, waiting around on the pavement to be put back together again. And it makes me the kings horses and the kings men, ultimately powerless to fix another person. I’ve changed my question. Now I say, "How can I be useful to you?" How can I support you as you take responsibility for yourself?  

Auschwitz survivor Edith Eva Eger in her book The Choice

Articles of Interest about higher ed - March 14

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 ***COVID-19

How worried should we be about COVID variants?

Does it matter which one I get? Comparing the three COVID-19 vaccines

How America’s Vaccine System Makes People With Health Problems Fight for a Place in Line ($)

***HIGHER ED & COVID

UC Davis offers students money to not travel during spring break

Here’s how colleges are working to reduce outbreaks

Duke University orders students to stay-in-place until March 21 following uptick in COVID-19 cases

Hundreds of rowdy revelers throw out-of-control street party near University of Colorado, Boulder, campus  

San Diego State University plans to offer in-person commencement this spring

***HIGHER ED & POLITICS

Biden's Covid relief won't shield many public colleges from pandemic's blow  

The stimulus bill is set to give nearly $40 billion to higher education—here’s where that money will go

***LAYOFFS & CUTS

Layoffs at Ithaca College are forcing people out of academia (and out of town)

Michigan’s Kettering University will end 5 programs 

University of Tennessee Health Science Center lays off 70

***COLLEGE FINANCES 

COVID-19 pandemic worsens financial distress for private liberal arts colleges

Chegg CEO: ‘25% of colleges could go out of business’

U.S. Colleges’ Mind-Blowing Cost Of Tuition (infographic)

 ***HIGHER ED  

Google's new certificate programs and a new feature of Google Search designed to help job seekers everywhere

Hackers Target University of Texas at El Paso

Southern New Hampshire Acquires Coding Boot Camp Kenzie Academ

Colleges continue losing undergraduate enrollment this spring, even as graduate enrollment climbs

***ACCREDITATION

Colleges Are Fleeing a Troubled Accreditor. Can They Find a New One?

Wheeling University placed on probation by Higher Learning Commission

***HIGHER ED IN COURT 

Supreme Court rules 8-1 in favor of students who sued Georgia Gwinnett College over restrictive speech policies

Supreme Court keeps ex-students' lawsuit alive in college speech zone case

Federal Court Dismisses Tuition Refund Lawsuits in Rhode Island

Former Berkeley law student sues UC over immigration error that cost him ‘dream job’

DePaul sued over facial recognition tech used for online test proctoring

***TEACHING

Coursera IPO filing reveals a company successfully monetizing MOOCs

Schools Are Abandoning Invasive Proctoring Software After Student Backlash

***ACADEMIC LIFE  

Faculty and Staff Often Don’t Trust One Another. How Do We Fix That?

New Nonpartisan Faculty Group Will Promote and Defend Free Speech, Academic Freedom

***ADMINISTRATORS

Calls increase for Oregon State president to resign over handling of sexual harassment claims

University of Scranton’s President dies from ALS complications

A new president takes the reins at University of Dallas

***CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS  

College of the Ozarks says its athletics program is ending its relationship with the NAIA

Anti-LGBTQ sign at Calvin University sparks students speaking out, silent sit-in protest

Cornel West returns to Union Theological Seminary after Harvard tenure dispute

California Baptist women's basketball team has perfect record but won't make NCAA Tournament

Samford University trustees elect Beck Taylor as new president

Science and Creationism in Serious Colleges ($)

Wesley Theological Seminary wants to tap into the school's most valuable asset — its land

***RESEARCH

Re-engineering Scholarly Journal Publishing

Tips about dealing with the scientific literature

Separating out Predatory publishers from the Legitimate ones

The Unstoppable Momentum of Outdated Science

***STUDENT LIFE 

Pandemic spurs increase in depression among college students

NLRB withdraws rules to quash graduate students’ right to organize as employees ($)

AP study: Nearly 90% of esports scholarships going to men

University of Tampa students revolt to throw their own graduation

Student suspensions are shaking up the University of Vermont campus

Is This the End of the Romance Between Chinese Students and American Colleges?

2 Middle Tennessee State students arrested on theft and forgery charges, accused of stealing $114K from university

College Students Are Still Paying for Services, Buildings That Remain Off Limits

The Lost Year: What the Pandemic Cost Teenagers

***SEXUAL HARASSMENT & ASSAULT

After reports of lap dances, lewd texts, University of South Carolina bungled sex harassment claims, women say

Eight ways colleges, like LSU, shield sexual assaults from the public

Biden directs fresh review of Title IX rule on campus sexual assault

***RACIAL ISSUES ON CAMPUS 

University of Texas backs down from trying to force student athletes to Stand for “The Eyes of Texas”

UT Austin finds no racist intent behind 'Eyes of Texas' alma mater that football players protested

Three Alabama professors on leave over racially insensitive Halloween pictures

Georgetown law professor under fire for comments about Black students' performance

The Prose and Poetry of Change

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The principal prose skill is finding your own voice. It is discovering how to be present in the experience of listening. It is listening deeply and experiencing just as deeply. There are prose elements to leading and living.

But similarly, there are poetry elements. Poetry is what illuminates your life. Poetry is what fills the small silences. Poetry is what brings you to meaning. Poetry is what touches the small fibers of who you are.

If you live a life of pure prose, you will live a linear and an effective but not an illuminus life. But if you can some how merge poetry and prose, you have the potential as a person and as a professional to be remarkable.

Roger Fransecky

Articles of interest about religion - March 10

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***THE VIRUS                

Why it's so hard to sign up for vaccinations online

Vaccine-skeptical Trump country poses challenge to immunization push

Fully vaccinated people can gather without masks, CDC says

Employees at Texas Mexican restaurant says customers threatened to call ICE on them for mask mandate

***RELIGION & THE VIRUS 

Atheists are more likely to get vaccinated, survey finds

COVID-19 one year later: The way it has changed worshiping our faiths

Christian Groups Resist Johnson & Johnson Vaccine For Using Abortion-Derived Cells

New surveys connect the dots between politics, race, religion and vaccination 

***RELIGION 

The Wasting of the Evangelical Mind (opinion) 

Why Christians Who Speak Jesus’ Language Can’t Agree on Their Name 

An evangelical scientist on reconciling her religion and the realities of climate change ($)

***RELIGION AND POLITICS

In America, evangelicalism has become as much a political as a religious identity 

Trump Prophet Enraged His Followers by Apologizing. Now He’s Shutting Down His Ministry

***RELIGION & THE LAW 

The Supreme Court’s new decision about evangelical preachers on campus, explained 

$20 million suit says Bay Area Catholic school forced boys out for 'blackface' that was actually acne medication

***DENOMINATIONS

Appeals court decision allows sex abuse lawsuit against Southern Baptist Paul Pressler to proceed  

United Methodist conservatives detail plans for a breakaway

***CATHOLIC

A deaf priest is now serving as chaplain at Gallaudet University

In Pope Francis, Biden Has A Potential Ally — Who Shares The Same Catholic Detractors  

Narrowing Enrollment Pipeline Pressures Roman Catholic Colleges 

***RELIGIOUS SCANDAL  

New Orleans deacon/ lawyer arrested and charged with allegations of sexual battery with a juvenile

Ravi Zacharias’s Ministry Plans Name Change, Calls for More Victims to Come Forward

***RELIGION & LGBTQ ISSUES

LGBTQ rights bill ignites debate over religious liberty

Major Evangelical Adoption Agency Will Now Serve Gay Parents Nationwide

***CHRISTIAN CELEBRITIES

Bible teacher Beth Moore, splitting with Lifeway, says, 'I am no longer a Southern Baptist'

Korn’s Brian ‘Head’ Welch ‘went too far’ with Christianity

Died: Larry Crabb, Christian Counselor

The Self and beyond

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We must help the individual to discover how commitments may be made without surrendering individuality. We must help him to understand and resist any impulse he may have to flee the responsibility of individual choice by mindless submission to a Cause or Movement.

In short, he must recognize the hazard of having no commitments beyond the self and the hazard of commitments that imperil the self.

John Gardner, Self-Renewal