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Inside the SCOTUS Case on School Library Censorship

Inside the SCOTUS Case on School Library Censorship

(podcast, Brooke Gladstone, On the Media, NYC Studios, 2-4-22)

 

I apologize for going beyond 'fair use' in providing a digest of this program. It's the only Supreme Court decision about removing "banned books" from school libraries, and it is a good discussion of issues in the case. I strongly recommend listening to the recording.

 

This year marks the 40th anniversary of Island Trees School District vs Pico, the first and only time the Supreme Court considered the question of book removal in school libraries.

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How to talk to a reporter (how to be a quotable 'source')

 

After this first excellent section for scientists are links to advice for other disciplines.

 

For scientists speaking to reporters:

These four sets of savvy tips from SciLine are excellent and, along with the realistic subtips, are easily transferable to non-science interviews. Click on the sources to get all the points and sub-points. Read More 

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How to Have Productive Conversations in a Polarized World

Discussing differences, conversing even when you disagree, listening to each other, bridging communities, saving local news


Let’s build a world where we can talk — and listen — to each other, Part 1 (Lisa Rossi, JSK Class of 2018, 6-5-18) "In an era when local news is declining, who is left to ask a public official a question about a confusing new policy? To get to the bottom of a school rumor about a teen in trouble? We are. Regular folks. Why building better conversations is an important building block to a healthy local news eco-system.

      "We need higher quality conversations. By re-learning how to talk to each after a decade of living our lives virtually, moment upon moment smeared by misinformation, posturing, trolls, vaguebooking, virality, online bullying, influencers and manipulators, we are reclaiming our very humanity, and along with that, our ability to discern fact from fiction, argue with a stranger (or family member) without yelling or hurling ugly insults, and learn from someone distinctly differently from ourselves." Read More 

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Addictive and wonderful TV and cable

(Updated from a shorter 2016 list)  I assembled this alphabetized list of "best TV and cable shows of all time") for friends but got so many requests for it that I posted it here and update it periodically. Not all of the shows are current. I've added stars to shows that in my view are "must try" and I've provided links for many shows, but venues change. You can always google the name of a show and scroll down past the Google ads to see if and where the shows are streaming now. If you haven't seen it, start with Friday Night Lights (2006-2011, watch streaming on Hulu and maybe one other channel now). Read More 

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GREAT PODCASTS TO LISTEN TO AS YOU EXERCISE, DRIVE, IRON, FILE, COOK, FALL ASLEEP, DREAM, CLEAN, OR WALK, etc.

Scroll down for links to popular podcasts.


How to download podcasts and listen to them on Android or iOS (Alina Bradford and Mark Jansen, Digital Trends, 7-31-19)
8 Types of Podcasts: The Complete Guide to Audio Content Marketing (Alexander Santo, Brafton) With pros and cons of each: Interview podcasts, Conversational podcasts, Monologue podcasts, Storytelling/Investigative podcasts, Roundtable podcasts, Theatrical podcasts, Repurposed content podcasts, Hybrid podcasts (mixing and matching to create your own style).
How to listen to podcasts: everything you need to know (Rowan Slaney, The Guardian)
Listen Notes (an excellent podcast search engine)
Hark Let Hark editors curate podcast moments into playlists around your interests.


Best Podcast Directories to Help You Get More Listeners (Podcast Insights) Also useful to listeners.
31 Best Podcast Hosting Sites (Podcast Insights)
The Atlantic podcasts
CNBC podcasts
Health podcasts (Covering Health's links)
NASA podcasts
New York Times podcasts
Nickelodeon podcasts (podcasts for children, Podbean)
NPR Podcast Directory
PBS podcasts
Publishers Weekly podcasts
SBNation podcasts (sports)
Slate podcasts
TEDTalks podcasts
WNYC podcasts
WSJ podcasts (Wall Street Journal)
How To Upload A Podcast (To iTunes Or Any Other Directory) (Podcast Insights)

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SOME OF OUR FAVORITE PODCASTS

aka podcasts we, friends, or colleagues have enjoyed (and sometimes become addicted to)

in alphabetical order:


1A (NPR News) Joshua Johnson hosts with great guests, framing the best debate in ways to make you think, share and engage.
Against the Rules Michael Lewis looks at what’s happened to fairness in American life through the lens of people who depend on public trust. After exploring what’s happened to referees and coaches, the third season of Against the Rules tackles what’s happened to our trust in experts and expertise.
Armchair Expert Dax Shepard and Monica Padman interview celebrities, journalists, and academics about "the messiness of being human."
The A16 podcast discusses tech and culture trends, news, and the future -- especially as ‘software eats the world’ (Andreessen Horowitz)
Before Breakfast Host Laura Vanderkam shares time management strategies and scheduling.
The Ben Shapiro Show
Biographers International (discussions with biographers from around the country and the world)
Blank Check with Griffin and David Hosts Griffin Newman and David Sims delve into the works of film's most outsized personalities in painstakingly hilarious detail.
Brian Lehrer: A Daily Politics Podcast  Read More 

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Are you a "creator" or an "influencer"? Or neither?


What the “Creator Economy” Promises—and What It Actually Does (Kyle Chayka, New Yorker, 7-17-21) A lattice of new platforms and tools purports to empower online creators. In reality, it’s turning digital content into gig work. "“Creator” is a term with a more wholesome air, conjuring an Internet in which we are all artisanal blacksmiths plying our digital craft. But what, exactly, the word implies beyond that is up for debate. According to Taylor Lorenz’s reporting for The Atlantic, the term was originally marketed by YouTube, as early as 2011, as an alternative to vocabulary like “YouTube star,” which seemed to imply that only a few famous figures could succeed on the platform. But it’s now used to describe practically anyone who is producing any form of content online.
The Game Is Rigged: Rethinking The Creator Economy (Tara McMullin, Explore What Works, 1-27-22) “Building an audience to monetize and building a customer base are two different activities that are often conflated. The confusion between the two strategies is a large part of what ends up making so many would-be social media marketers miserable.”

      "The first way the game is rigged is that we’re playing a game that wasn’t designed for us....The second way the game is rigged is how these platforms manipulate unpaid labor. The reason posting more, learning what people like to share, trying out every new tool the platforms create, and responding to every comment seems to be the answer is that the platforms depend on our labor. They rely on us to fill the feeds with things that keep people scrolling, clicking, and viewing ads. The platforms care about us at a group level–they need those super users to stay on the factory floor. But they don’t care at all about us at the individual level."
The Real Difference Between Creators and Influencers (Taylor Lorenz, The Atlantic, 5-31-19) From 2011 to 2016, YouTube worked hard to promote  "creators," a term it applied to independent YouTube stars who could grow their audience (go viral) and monetize. In 2014-2016 Instagram grabbed attention with its Instagram stars or Instagrammers, and the term "influencer" gained in popularity. An infuencer is "anyone who leverages social media to grow a following and exerts influence over that following in order to make money."
Why Women Are Called 'Influencers' and Men 'Creators' (Emma Gray Ellis, Wired, 5-29-19)
TikTok and the Vibes Revival (Kyle Chayka, New Yorker, 4-26-21) "Increasingly, what we’re after on social media is not narrative or personality but moments of audiovisual eloquence....Vibes are a medium for feeling, the kind of abstract understanding that comes before words put a name to experience. That pre-linguistic quality makes them well suited to a social-media landscape that is increasingly prioritizing audio, video, and images over text. Through our screens, vibes are being constantly emitted and received."

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Where journalists get their medical news and information

by Pat McNees (updated from original 2017 post)

 

On the "Top of the Morning" page of the Center for Health Journalism, prominent health journalists and experts write what sites, newsletters, and social media feeds they turn to first every morning and why. Here below are links to those sites and others, in alphabetical order. Feel free to comment. See also Why Bolstering Trust in Journalism Could Help Strengthen Trust in Medicine (Vineet M. Arora, David Rousseau, and Gary Schwitzer, Trust in Health Care, JAMA Network, 5-13-19) and 7 ways journalists can access academic research for free (Denise-Marie Ordway, Journalist's Resource, 9-21-18) In addition, of course, journalists get original material by interviewing experts, witnesses, victims, and other participants in world and daily events.


Ag Insider Daily (Food & Reporting Network) FERN's morning brief offering daily reporting and analysis on food, agriculture and the environment. 
• Alerts about embargoed studies from various journals and organizations, including JAMA, Pediatrics, the American Heart AssociationNewswise (a free service for journalists that offers access to embargoed papers in fields ranging from climate change science to specific medical fields.
American Heart Association newsroom.
Association of Health Care Journalists AHCJ keeps up on important health trends and offers tips on  Read More 

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Adaptations: Movies and TV based on novels and short stories

Updated 11-5-22
A Primer on TV & Film Adaptation for Writers (Where the Rules Change Often) (Jeanne Veillette Bowerman on Jane Friedman's blog, 11-2-22) The elements of a great pitch package, logline, synopsis, treatments, the book, pitch deck. Do you need the screenplay written in advance?
How Does a Book Get Adapted for TV or Film? (Chaya Bhuvaneswar, LitHub, 5-20-21) A Roundtable Conversation with Laura Van Den Berg, Daniel Torday, Melissa Scholes Young, and Stephanie Beard
How Are Books Adapted for the Screen? Two Agents Demystify the Process (Sangeeta Mehta on Jane Friedman's blog, 8-10-22)
What Hollywood Wants (and How to Give It to Them): Intellectual Property Adaptations (Ken Miyamoto, Screencraft, 4-5-22) What types of screenplays are most desirable in the eyes of Hollywood insiders and decision-makers?
The best book-to-film adaptations ever, ranked (Marc Chacksfield, ShortList)
How to Adapt Jane Austen, and Why It's So Hard to Get It Right (CNN, 8-7-22)
The Best Movie Adaptations of TV Shows (IMDb)
31 Movies Based on Short Stories (Emily Temple, LitHub, 10-1-18) Or How to Turn a Nine-Page Story into a Feature Film
10 Best Movies You Didn't Know Were Originally Short Stories (Amber Nuyens, CBR, 5-14-22) Many great films have their origins in the short story medium.
10 Books You Should Still Read Even After Watching The Movie Adaptation Ajay Aravind, CBR aka Comic Book Review, 4-22-22) Though movie adaptations of books are exciting, they tend to leave out interesting information and moments.      

  The Color Purple by Alice Walker

  Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

  The Help by Kathryn Stockett

  One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

  The Call of the Wild by Jack London

  Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk

  Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh

  Dune by Frank Herbert

  To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

  Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
10 Things The Game of Thrones Series Changed from the Books (Ajay Aravind, CBR.com, 5-3-22)
40 of Our All-Time Favorite Book-to-Movie Adaptations (Jeff Somers, BookBub, 4-22-21)
15 Must-See Book-to-Screen Adaptations Coming Out in 2022 (Melissa Flandreau, BookBub, 1-6-22)
29 Best Movies Based on Books That Are Actually Worth Watching (Anna Moeslein, Glamour, 5-19-21)
100 best movies based on books (Jacob Osborn, Stacker, 8-29-20)
50 movies that address the history of racism in America (Elona Neal, Stacker, 1-23-21)
The 19 Best Movies Based on Books of All Time (R. Eric Thomas, Elle, 4-17-20)
Lists of works of fiction made into feature films (Wikipedia)
---List of short fiction made into feature films (Wikipedia)
---List of plays adapted into feature films (Wikipedia)
---List of non-fiction works made into feature films (Wikipedia)
25 Best Movies Based on Books: Read It Then See It (Yen Cabag, TCK Publishing)

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Why writers keep journals, notebooks, and/or diaries

A few extracts (quotes), not unlike what you might keep in a writer's journal:

 

•"Always carry a notebook. And I mean always. The short-term memory only retains information for three minutes; unless it is committed to paper you can lose an idea forever.” ~ Will Self, quoted by Judy Reeves in A Writer’s Book of Days (See a long, interesting selection on that Amazon page.)


Not a Journal Person? Post-Pandemic Might Be the Perfect Time to Start (Anne Carley on Jane Friedman's blog, 5-5-22) A journaling practice can serve as a laboratory for your writing and your life. See Your Journal as Time Machine (5-12-22): Our unprogrammed available slices of time, only a few minutes per slice, become time confetti. We can use them to write in our journals. The pages of our journal can transport us from the here and now to snapshots of our internal world, over the years.


Morning Pages (Julia Cameron, The Artist's Way) "There is no wrong way to do Morning Pages– they are not high art. They are not even “writing.” They are about anything and everything that crosses your mind– and they are for your eyes only. Morning Pages provoke, clarify, comfort, cajole, prioritize and synchronize the day at hand."
---"Julia Cameron’s time-honored three pages a day have populated millions of journals."~ Anne Carley


• "The daybook is a record of my intellectual life, what I'm thinking and what I'm thinking about writing." ~ Donald M. Murray, A Writer Teaches Writing


•"Writers react. And writers need a place to record those reactions....That's what a writer's notebook is for. It gives you a place to write down what makes you angry or sad or amazed, to write down what you noticed and don't want to forget, to record exactly what your grandmother whispered in your ear before she said good-bye for the last time.... A writer's notebook gives you a place to live like a writer, not just in school during writing time, but wherever you are, at any time of day." ~ Ralph Fletcher, A Writer's Notebook: Unlocking the Writer Within You

• "Pay tribute to all the everyday and extraordinary things. Everything's essential; every thing belongs in the pages of this notebook." ~ Natalie Goldberg, The Essential Writers Notebook: A Step-By-Step Guide to Better Writing


Silent Companion (Anne Carley, Bacca Literary, 11-16-20) "I turned to my green notebook. I needed to sort out my feelings about this good news that turned sideways when it revealed a transgression. I found a steadfast companion that night.... Open to whatever I write, annotate, or doodle, it welcomes me every time. Virginia Woolf’s ideal, a framework 'so elastic that it will embrace anything, solemn, slight or beautiful that comes into my mind,' is attainable."


• “[T]he habit of writing … for my own eye only is good practice. It loosens the ligaments. … What sort of diary should I like mine to be? Something loose knit and yet not slovenly, so elastic that it will embrace anything, solemn, slight or beautiful that comes into my mind." ~ Virginia Woolf, A Writer's Diary

 

"The writer's notebook is a sourcebook of collected insights and a testing ground for ideas. . . . [I]t's important to know the differences between this sort of notebook and a diary, so that you avoid making entries that will not help you. A diary is a daily record of events. It is for recording everything that happens. A writer's notebook, on the other hand, is for recording only special perceptions that might serve as the core statements of essays. These insights may arise from the particular way in which you view something that occurred during the day, from your response to some book, or simply from an unsummoned idea that pops into your head.

To illustrate:

Diary: Finished reading Norman Mailer's book about Gary Gilmore.
Writer's Notebook: Mailer ennobles the killer Gary Gilmore in his book.
--This shows how naif Mailer is. The most satisfying part of maintaining a writer's notebook is that it becomes a record of how your perceptions change and grow over time."

          ~ Adrienne Robins, The Analytical Writer: A College Rhetoric


8 Reasons Keeping a Journal Can Help You Reach Your Goals (Joshua Becker, Becoming a Minimalist)

 

Several of the quotations above and others can be found at Writer's Notebook (Richard Nordquist, ThoughtCo., 2-12-20).

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Social media regulation in European Union

I honestly don't understand how these entries on the proposed Digital Services Act and Digital Marketing Act will work or if they will affect people in the United States, but they seem to be a game-changer in Europe and might eventually create pressure for more regulation of social media in the United States. I am providing some links here, moving the Popular Science entry from last to first because it's in the plainest English:
Everything you need to know about the battle between US tech and EU laws (Harry Guinness, Popular Science, 4-27-22)

    "The European Parliament recently approved the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act. Here's how that could affect big tech.
     "According to the EU, the DSA and DMA have two big goals: “create a safer digital space in which the fundamental rights of all users of digital services are protected” and “establish a level playing field to foster innovation, growth, and competitiveness, both in the European Single Market and globally.”

     "In practice, this means overseeing how large social networks, search engines, and other tech companies do business, and limiting how they use consumer data.
     "The DSA in particular has rules targeted at online services like Facebook, Instagram, Google, and TikTok. It bans targeted advertising aimed at children, or based on sensitive data like religion, gender, race, sexual orientation, or political affiliation. It also bans “dark patterns” or deceptive design elements that can trick you into buying or signing up for something unintentionally. For example, websites will have to present the buttons to opt in and out of targeted ads equally; the option to opt out can’t be tucked away behind a text link on the second page of settings and written in a small font colored to match the background. Unless US tech companies create separate page and app designs just for EU customers, this will hopefully improve the web user experience around the world."

     Etc.


EU poised to impose sweeping social media regulation with Digital Services Act (Technology + Press Freedom, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, 5-8-22) The European Union is on the verge of doing what the U.S. has not done (and, in some cases, could not do) — comprehensively regulate social media platforms. Last week, the European Parliament and EU Council reached an agreement on the Digital Services Act, and while the final text has not been released, the law would impose sweeping new rules for internet platforms, regulating everything from “dark patterns” and algorithms to public safety threats and illegal content.
       The DSA, and its partner regulation, the Digital Markets Act, were introduced to the European Parliament in 2020. The European Commission said the regulations were intended to accomplish two goals: “create a safer digital space in which the fundamental rights of all users of digital services are protected” and “establish a level playing field to foster innovation, growth, and competitiveness, both in the European Single Market and globally.”
Digital Services Act: Council and European Parliament provisional agreement for making the internet a safer space for European citizens (Council of the European Union, 4-23-22)
    The Digital Services Act package "The Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act aim to create a safer digital space where the fundamental rights of users are protected and to establish a level playing field for businesses. What are Digital Services?
Digital services include a large category of online services, from simple websites to internet infrastructure services and online platforms.
      "The rules specified in the DSA primarily concern online intermediaries and platforms. For example, online marketplaces, social networks, content-sharing platforms, app stores, and online travel and accommodation platforms.
      "The Digital Markets Act includes rules that govern gatekeeper online platforms. Gatekeeper platforms are digital platforms with a systemic role in the internal market that function as bottlenecks between businesses and consumers for important digital services. Some of these services are also covered in the Digital Services Act, but for different reasons and with different types of provisions.
Deal on Digital Markets Act: EU rules to ensure fair competition and more choice for users (Press Releases, European Parliament, 3-24-22) Twitter LinkedIn Whatsapp

     "On Thursday evening, Parliament and Council negotiators agreed new EU rules to limit the market power of big online platforms.
      "The Digital Markets Act (DMA) will ban certain practices used by large platforms acting as “gatekeepers” and enable the Commission to carry out market investigations and sanction non-compliant behaviour.
       "The text provisionally agreed by Parliament and Council negotiators targets large companies providing so-called “core platform services” most prone to unfair business practices, such as social networks or search engines, with a market capitalisation of at least 75 billion euro or an annual turnover of 7.5 billion. To be designated as “gatekeepers”, these companies must also provide certain services such as browsers, messengers or social media, which have at least 45 million monthly end users in the EU.and 10 000 annual business users.
      "During a close to 8-hour long trilogue (three-way talks between Parliament, Council and Commission), EU lawmakers agreed that the largest messaging services (such as Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger or iMessage) will have to open up and interoperate with smaller messaging platforms, if they so request. Users of small or big platforms would then be able to exchange messages, send files or make video calls across messaging apps, thus giving them more choice. As regards interoperability obligation for social networks, co-legislators agreed that such interoperability provisions will be assessed in the future.
Digital Services Act: agreement for a transparent and safe online environment (Press releases, European Parliament, 4-23-22)

---Access to platforms’ algorithms now possible
---Online platforms will have to remove illegal products, services or content swiftly after they have been reported
---Protection of minors online reinforced; additional bans on targeted advertising for minors as well as targeting based on sensitive data
---Users will be better informed how content is recommended to them

Digital Services Act: Council and European Parliament provisional agreement for making the internet a safer space for European citizens (Council of the European Union, 4-23-22)

      "The DSA follows the principle that what is illegal offline must also be illegal online. It aims to protect the digital space against the spread of illegal content, and to ensure the protection of users’ fundamental rights. The DSA introduces an obligation for very large digital platforms and services to analyse systemic risks they create and to carry out risk reduction analysis. This analysis must be carried out every year and will enable continuous monitoring aimed at reducing risks associated with:
---dissemination of illegal content
---adverse effects on fundamental rights
---manipulation of services having an impact on democratic processes and public security
---adverse effects on gender-based violence, and on minors and serious consequences for the physical or mental health of users."

EU officially boots Russia’s RT, Sputnik outlets (Laura Kayali and Clothilde Goujard,Politico Pro, 3-2-22)

     "Kremlin-backed media outlets RT and Sputnik are officially banned in the EU as of Wednesday morning, in a move meant to crack down on Russian disinformation amid Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
     "The sanctions against the news groups were published in the EU's Official Journal, effectively providing legal grounds to implement the Commission and EU governments’ decision to take both Russian state-run organizations off the air and offline within the bloc.
    “[The measures] are also limited in time, because they should be maintained until the aggression is put to an end and until Russia and its media outlets cease to conduct propaganda actions against the Union and the member states,” the EU official added."

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