Renewal and Friendship

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The self-renewing man has mutually fruitful relations with other human beings. They are capable of accepting love and capable of giving it – both more difficult achievements than is commonly thought. And what has that to do with self-renewal? The man or woman who is incapable of accepting love or of giving it is imprisoned, cut off from a great part of the world of experience. Love and friendship dissolve the rigidities of the isolated self, force new perspectives, alter judgments, and keep in working order the emotional substratum on which all profound comprehensive of human affairs must rest.

John Gardner, Self-Renewal

Articles of interest about journalism, writing, conspiracy theories & more - April 5

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***COVID-19

CDC: Fully vaccinated people can travel in U.S. without tests or quarantines 

Can Vaccinated People Spread the Virus? We Don’t Know, Scientists Say.

CDC Data Suggests Vaccinated Don’t Carry, Can’t Spread Virus

***JOURNALISM

Why Being ‘Anti-Media’ Is Now Part Of The GOP Identity

The journalism crisis across the world

Asian America women like me have been objectified & dehumanized. This was my TV news experience (opinion) 

Paul Brock, a founder of Black journalism group, dies at 89

Vaccine Hesitancy: What Journalists Need to Know

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

Kansas City newspaper sends a warning with a blank front page ($)

More than 25 places to find journalism jobs and internships

Bystander intervention training to stop anti-Asian/American and xenophobic harassment

***THE BUSINESS OF MEDIA

Billionaires push to derail hedge fund takeover of local newspapers

U.S. Supreme Court permits FCC to loosen media ownership rules

West Coast billionaires buy dying legacy media companies

How Stat survived, and thrived, during the craziest year in health reporting history 

***WRITING & READING

HarperCollins to Acquire HMH Trade 

Graphic novel from the “Captain Underpants” series pulled from library and bookstore shelves

‘Hemingway’ documentary Is a Big Two-Hearted Reconsideration ($)

***COVID-19 MISINFORMATION 

Vitamin D: The truth about an alleged Covid ‘cover-up’

As the flood of false & misleading health information continues unabated on social media, publishers find themselves in for a battle

The Antiscience Movement Is Escalating, Going Global and Killing Thousands

COVID-19 Misinformation Playbook

The Dark Web Is Teeming With Vaccine Listings Right Now

'You can't trust the government': Spanish-speaking social media spreads COVID-19 vaccine disinformation, adds to hesitancy

***FAKES

How Sounds Are Faked For Nature Documentaries

***SOCIAL MEDIA  

How to check if your account was part of Facebook’s 533M record leak

Google integrates Chat to Gmail for all accounts

How beauty filters took over social media | MIT Technology Review 

Facebook Disputes Claims It Fuels Political Polarization And Extremism

Group-Chatting Platform Discord Might Change Social Media With Its Business Model 

QAnon Facebook Group Linked to Capitol Riot Still Active

***PRIVACY & SECURITY 

Personal data from over 500M Facebook users leaked online - 9to5Mac

IRS Warns of Scam Targeting .Edu Email Addresses

Fake apps are circumventing Apple’s rules in order to rob users

New study reveals iPhones aren't as private as you think 

Spy pixels in emails have become endemic 

Companies use this email trick to spy on you all the time – and you had no idea 

***LANGUAGE

Words Like 'Racism' Have Lost Their Common Meaning (opinion)

***POETRY

San Diego's Poet Laureate Launches Digital Poetry Platform

Amanda Gorman’s Poetry United Critics. It’s Dividing Translators

Poetry Challenge: Create A List Poem That Grapples With Rise Of Anti-Asian Racism

Renewal Happens 

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Renewal comes neither by taking a rest nor changing the scenery, nor by adding something new to our lives, but by ending whatever is, and then entering a temporary state of chaos when everything is up for grabs and anything is possible. Then we can come out of what is really a death-and-rebirth process with a new identity, a new sense of purpose, and a new store of life energy.

William Bridges, The Way of Transition

 

Articles of interest about higher ed- April 1

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***COVID-19

Vaccine passports and digital vaccination records, explained 

Why vaccine passports may be inevitable in next phase of COVID-19

Should I laminate my COVID vaccine card? Here’s what experts say

How does COVID-19 affect the brain?

Florida man fired after fake vaccine card business exposed on TikTok

Stanford Scientists Reverse Engineer Moderna Vaccine, Post Code on Github 

***HIGHER ED & COVID

Some say COVID-19 may have changed college campuses for good

Rutgers University first in nation to require on-campus students get COVID vaccine for fall semester 

***ENROLLMENT

Enrollment declines at California’s community colleges far greater than earlier predictions  

***HIGHER ED 

Moody's Upgrades Financial Outlook for Higher Ed

The Absurdity of University Rankings

A new direction for Bennett College

Google Engineers Created a Cheap Certificate Program to Help You Get a New Job in Tech 

***LAYOFFS & CUTS

University of Montana professors, students protest proposed $2.6 million budget cuts 

Salem State University retrenchment plan accidentally released 

***COLLEGE FINANCES 

The biggest earners at private colleges and universities

Moody's Raises Higher Ed Outlook to Stable

***HIGHER ED IN COURT 

High court sympathetic to college athletes in NCAA dispute

Judge rules for Southern Methodist University over jurisdiction

Students file lawsuit over fake college sting operation by ICE and DHS

Appeals court says Iowa administrators are personally liable in lawsuit brought by Christian student group

***TEACHING 

A Pair of Business School Professors Made Their Students Read Fiction. Amazing Things Happened

Cal State LA was caught in a large-scale cheating scandal, but it’s not alone 

How Cheating in College Hurts Students

Zoom Escaper makes it easy to sabotage that unbearable Zoom meeting

***ACADEMIC LIFE  

University of Missouri faculty members upset about use of data in promotion and tenure 

The Well-Heeled Professoriate: Socioeconomic Backgrounds Of University Faculty

***ACADEMICS & CRIME  

Professor put camera in teen’s room ‘to bond with her,’ Oklahoma documents say

Ga. Tech professor indicted on federal fraud charges

***PROFESSORS IN COURT  

A professor was reprimanded for refusing to use a transgender student’s pronouns--A court says he can sue

Lecturer fired for ‘aggressive’ use of question marks gets $20K payout

***ADMINISTRATORS

SC State University faculty senate votes 'no confidence' in President and Provost

University of Michigan leaders condemn regent's comments 

***ADMINISTRATORS LEAVING 

Lily McNair No Longer President at Tuskegee University

University of Iowa President Bruce Harreld to leave earlier than expected

Oregon State University President F. King Alexander resigns amid fallout from LSU scandal

CUNY law school dean cancels herself after 'slaveholder' comment

***CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS  

Evangel University dropping the name "Crusaders"

Dozens of Christian students sue the U.S. Education Dept., hoping to pressure Equality Act negotiations

USA Today editor fired who wanted to ban Christian University from NCAA

After Lee University publicly corrects campus speaker, alumni organize to protect LGBTQ students who they say are in danger

Regent University hosts conspiracy-filled livestream event

Baylor University report recommends changing buildings and statues honoring slave owners but gives a pass to school’s founder

***RESEARCH

How to Find and Vet Journal Articles 

The fight against fake-paper factories that churn out sham science

Science relies on constructive criticism. Here’s how to keep it useful and respectful 

Self-correction in science: The diagnostic and integrative motives for replication

The internationality of published higher education scholarship: How do the ‘top’ journals compare?

The top editor at JAMA has been sidelined amid outcry comments on structural racism

***STUDENT LIFE 

Angela Davis event: Butler University students allege censorship

College student found driving 106 mph while watching Zoom class

Tax Refund Scam Targets College Students and Staff

Yale Disputes Social Media Report on Student's Suicide

28 Things They Don't Teach You In High School That You Learn Pretty Much Immediately In College

***STUDENTS IN COURT 

Supreme Court sides with student newspaper in dispute with UK over sexual misconduct records

Judge Says Students Can Sue Quinnipiac Over Shift to Remote Learning

FTC sends out nearly $50 million to former University of Phoenix students from 2019 settlement 

***STUDENT MEDIA 

Student journalist finds photo of the Harvard KKK — and documents school’s overlooked racist past ($)

***SEXUAL HARASSMENT & ASSAULT

Florida State scrambles to explain how a faculty member who was known to prey on Asian female students was allowed to do so for 30 years

Michigan University Students Claim Their Title IX Coordinator Told Them Sexual Assault Wasn't 'Worth Reporting'

New online reporting form allows Brown University students to report sexual harassment anonymously

Administrator files complaint against Oregon State--claims discrimination on the basis of disability, sex, gender

USC agrees to $852 million payout in sex abuse lawsuit

11 women file lawsuit alleging Eastern Michigan University mishandled sexual assault claims

***RACIAL ISSUES ON CAMPUS 

A white professor at Camden County College is alleging racial discrimination after discovering his Black colleagues make more money

More than 250 Univ of South Alabama faculty of color pen open letter to President, Board of Trustees after racially insensitive photos

Oxford University considers scrapping ‘colonial’ and ‘white’ music notation in syllabus makeover

Boise State resumes diversity classes after brief suspension and controversy

University of Cincinnati professor who called COVID-19 'the Chinese virus' not asked to return

Brown University undergraduates vote for reparations for descendants of enslaved people

***CRIME ON CAMPUS

Two plead guilty to stealing millions of dollars’ worth of computers from Stanford

***RANSOMWARE

Ransomware gang breaches University of Colorado and University of Miami

Ransomware group targets universities in Maryland, California in new data leaks

Mott Community College addresses data security breach

Data Science articles from March 2021

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DARPA seeks to improve computer vision in ‘Third Wave’ of AI research

Bayesian networks can provide answers when machine learning comes up short

MIT study finds ‘systematic’ labeling errors in popular AI benchmark datasets

An interpretable design of unsupervised deep convolutional neural network & lstm autoencoders based real-time anomaly detection from high-dimensional heterogeneous/homogeneous time series data

An overview of  machine learning operations maintenance

Small, cheap spy satellites mean there’s no hiding place

A new statistical model generates more nuanced predictions for complicated events

Spurred on by quantum experiments that scramble the ordering of causes and their effects, some physicists are figuring out how to abandon causality altogether

Researchers think they’ve solved the ‘barren plateaus' issue in quantum machine learning

Geospatial information is vital for linking unconnected datasets and driving digital transformation

Is coding more like a language, or more like math?

The not-so-secret value of sharing commercial geospatial and open-source information

Creating AI systems that can learn causal representations to solve machine learning’s causality problem

MIT built algorithm helps artificial intelligence systems dodge “adversarial” inputs

Bringing spiking neural networks & artificial neural networks together that might lead to allowing machine learning to run on edge devises

DARPA work on homomorphic encryption technology

Cataloging non-reproducible machine learning papers

Five reasons so many data science projects fail to deliver

Bayesian hierarchical modeling at scale

The same reinforcement learning techniques that help guide online ads can be used to solve many other problems

A TensorFlow cheat sheet

Articles of interest about religion - March 30

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***COVID-19

How to talk to those hesitant about the Covid-19 vaccine

Michigan must tell Johnson & Johnson vaccine recipients that it was developed using stem cells

Watch out for these vaccination scams looking to get your money, information

New York launches nation's first 'vaccine passports.'

People Fully Vaccinated Against COVID-19 Can Still Contract Virus, Study Shows

Why you should get a COVID-19 vaccine – even if you’ve already had the coronavirus

Office Depot will laminate COVID-19 vaccination cards for free

***COVID-19 & RELIGION

Hundreds attend Christian revival in North Carolina — most without masks, videos show

***RELIGION 

Why would Christians embrace conspiracy theories?  

National Association Of Evangelicals Leader Strives To Break Down Barriers, 'Build Bridges'

The Most Christian Continent: Africa

The waning of the black church A historic past is not enough for the black church to thrive today

***THE BIBLE

Dead Sea Scrolls Discovery Reveals New Details About the Bible’s Earliest Translations

Tennessee lawmakers advance bill to make Bible state's official book

***RELIGION & CRIME 

Atlanta Suspect’s Fixation on Sex Is Familiar Thorn for Evangelicals

Atlanta Shooting Suspect’s Church Bashed ‘Radical Feminism’ in Deleted Sermons

***RELIGION & RACIAL ISSUES

Study: Racial Diversity Within a Church Is Associated with Higher Average Attendance Over Time

A noose was found outside of a DC church, and police are now investigating incident as a possible hate crime 

***RELIGION & WOMEN

From the Empty Tomb to Today’s Abuse: Believe Women

The good White Christian women of Nazi Germany

Asian women lead charge against bigotry in Christian rallies across U.S,

After Beth Moore departure, more Southern Baptist women question roles in church

***MEGACHURCHES

Megachurch employee fired for “inappropriate behavior online” years ago, church leaders say

***RELIGION & BUSINESS  

Parent company of Christian radio's K-LOVE and Air1 relocating to Nashville area

Can you be fired over your sex life? Christian Financial Guru Dave Ramsey thinks so

***ISLAM 

Muslim groups are raising money for Colorado shooting victims

Colorado shooting suspect had worried about being targeted for his Muslim faith, acquaintances say

***RELIGION & SINGERS 

Skillet’s John Cooper Compares Grammys to Hitler, Condemns Cardi B’s Performance

Nike sues company behind Lil Nas X’s Satan Shoes which come with a pentagram pendant and a Bible verse

***RELIGION & CRIME

Accused Atlanta gunman was a patient at an evangelical treatment center 

***RELIGION & SEXUAL ABUSE

The inside story of how Kanakuk—one of America’s largest Christian camps—enabled horrific abuse

***SURVEYS ABOUT RELIGION

Gallup: Fewer Than Half of Americans Belong to a Church

74% of Black Americans believe in God of the Bible or other scripture

Nine-in-ten Black ‘nones’ believe in God, but fewer pray or attend services

***RELIGION & MONEY 

Preachers and their $5,000 sneakers: Why one man started an Instagram account showing churches’ wealth  

A loss can set you free

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Deafness freed Beethoven as a composer because he no longer had society’s soundtrack in his ears. Perhaps therein lies a lesson for each of us. I know, I know: You’re no Beethoven. But as you read the lines above, maybe you could relate to the great composer’s loss in some small way. Have you lost something that defined your identity? Maybe it involves your looks. Or your social prestige. Or your professional relevance. How might this loss set you free? 

You might finally define yourself in new ways, free from the boundaries you set for yourself based on the expectations of others. 

Arthur C. Brooks writing in the Washington Post

Articles of interest about journalism, writing, conspiracy theories & more - March 25

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***COVID-19

Survey: 42% say they gained about 29 pandemic pounds, while 10% gained as much as 50 pounds

The US is about to reach a surprise milestone: too many vaccines, not enough takers

10 facts about Americans and coronavirus vaccines 

Hang on to that COVID-19 vaccination card -- it’s important

Doctor says people previously infected with COVID-19 being infected with variant cases

***JOURNALISM

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

The Asian American Journalists Association guide for those covering the Atlanta shootings 

***THE BUSINESS OF JOURNALISM

How the New York Times A/B tests their headlines 

Pooled Journalism Funds Could Help Save Local Newspapers

***WRITING & READING

How to write inclusive, accessible digital products

More Than Words: Using AI to Map How the Brain Understands Sentences  

How Crying on TikTok Sells Books

 ***PLAGIARISM

The English teacher, Oxford University Press, and an accusation of heinous plagiarism 

A paper on plagiarism titled Illegitimacy of Plagiarism Norms 

Instances of plagiarism found in several articles published by the University of Michigan student newspaper 

Plagiarism costs legal firm £45,000 in damages

***FAKES, FRAUDS & SCAMS

Anyone with an iPhone can now make deepfakes ($)

Young Adults, Seniors Over 75 Most Susceptible to Cyber Fraud: Report 

Fake science news: 6 tips to debunk misinformation online

Fraudsters jump on Clubhouse hype to push malicious Android app

Articles Linking COVID-19 To Death Seem To Be Driving Misinformation Online

***VACCINE CONSPIRACIES 

Why do Americans share so much fake news? They aren’t paying attention, new research suggests

The ex-Pfizer scientist who became an anti-vax hero

Amazon Is Pushing Readers Down A "Rabbit Hole" Of Conspiracy Theories About The Coronavirus

Anti-Vaxxers Are Already Big Mad About Krispy Kreme's Free Doughnut Offer

Why anti-vaccine propaganda still runs rampant on Instagram

12 people are behind most of the anti-vaxxer disinformation you see on social media

***CONSPIRACY THEORIES  

Conspiracy Theories and the Problem of Disbelief

How Do We Understand Conspiracy Theories And Their Impact?

***QANON

Why QAnon Followers Are Suddenly Saying There’s No Such Thing As QAnon 

QAnon shifts, spreading Chinese and Jewish conspiracy myths

HBO's QAnon Docuseries 'Q: Into The Storm' Says It Has Discovered Q's Identity

***FACEBOOK 

Biden and Trump supporters see two different Facebooks, and here’s proof

Facebook Is Building An Instagram For Kids

What Facebook sees in newsletters

***PRIVACY & SECURITY 

The hidden fingerprint inside your photos

Third-party cookie replacements fall short of consent and transparency promises

***LITERATURE

Really Harsh Early Reviews of 20 Classic 20th-Century Novels

Dr. Seuss’ stepdaughter speaks out about books removed from print

***POETRY 

Living in the “In-Between Spaces” of Elizabeth Bishop’s Life-Changing Poetry

Acclaimed Polish poet Adam Zagajewski dies at age 75

Poet Raymond Antrobus, Author Of 'The Perseverance

The phone call

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Your telephone rings and the voice at the other end says, “Friend, don’t be disturbed. I don’t want to borrow any money and I have no favors to ask. I just thought I would call and tell you that I think you’re one of the nicest persons who ever draw a breath of air. You are an asset to your profession and a credit to your community. You’re the kind of person I like to be with because every time I’m around you, I feel inspired and motivated to do a better job. I wish I could see you every day because you motivate me to be my best self. That’s all I want to say, friend. Look forward to seeing you soon.”

Now, if a close friend called you and said those things to you what kind of day would you have? Remember, you know the words are sincere because they are coming from a close friend.

If you were a doctor, would you be a better doctor? If you were a teacher, would you be a better teacher? Regardless of who you are or what you do, you know in your own mind you wouldn’t only be better at your job, but you would be happier wouldn’t you?

How much more would you know about being a doctor? Or a sales person? Or a lawyer? How much more would you know if you had gotten that phone call? The answer obviously is you wouldn’t know any more. Still, in your own mind you know you would be better and happier.

You would say, "I’m an asset to my community and a credit to my profession. That old boy said so and he is one more smart cookie."

You wouldn’t argue with him for one single moment. You would see yourself in a different light. Your self-image would change and at that instant an interesting thing happens. Your confidence goes up and when your confidence goes up, your competence goes up at the same time.

Since you know what this kind of phone call would do for you, why don’t you do the same thing for someone else?

Zig Ziglar, See You at the Top