We’re underestimating the mind-warping potential of fake video

Let’s put this all together. False memories fester when they make sense to our political worldview, when it’s familiar and repeated ad nauseam, when we trust the source of the information, and when this information is corroborated, shared, and discussed by like-minded people.
Where else do all these things happen? Social media. Fake stories tend to move more quickly to people on these platforms than the truth, fueled by surprise and bias.

A sober treatise on the future of warfare warns of the perils of autonomous robotic combatants

Fiscal constraints and decreasing human resources, together with the promise of enhanced precision, effective risk management, and force multiplication, are driving Pentagon planners (and their counterparts in other nations) to aggressively pursue battlefield automation. In Army of None, Paul Scharre offers an authoritative and sobering perspective on the automated battlefields that will very soon come to characterize military conflict, predicting that autonomous robots, many fully armed and capable of independent targeting decisions, will inevitably come to rule the waves, as well as prevailing on the ground, in the air, and especially in space.

7 Communication Practices That Will Improve Your Staff Culture

1. Confront Privately and Praise Publicly
2. Have Difficult Conversations in Person
3. Encourage More Than Correct
4. Be Transparent
5. Be Optimistic
6. Be a Raving Fan Publicly and a Frank Critic Privately
7. Have Relationships Outside of the Office

Why I Don’t Sit With My Husband at Church

Every week, men and women wander into our gatherings for the first time, some invited, others of their own accord. Some have recently moved and are seeking community while others haven’t been to church in a while, or ever. Their experience will determine whether they ever come back.
For my husband and me, offering hospitality has meant breaking down a common church practice: sitting together as a family.

Reading Aloud to Young Children Has Benefits for Behavior and Attention

A new study provides evidence of just how sustained an impact reading and playing with young children can have, shaping their social and emotional development in ways that go far beyond helping them learn language and early literacy skills. The parent-child-book moment even has the potential to help curb problem behaviors like aggression, hyperactivity and difficulty with attention, a new study has found.

Man’s own dashboard camera shows him committing burglary

More than three hours after the alleged burglary, on State Road 7 near Southern Boulevard, Moran was involved in a crash on Belvedere Road. Moran told a Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputy that he was cut off by another driver and could prove it through his dashboard camera.
Moran signed a consent waiver to search the camera.
While reviewing the video footage, the deputy observed Moran’s 2014 Nissan backing into a parking space in front of the Sally’s Beauty Supply store. The video then allegedly shows Moran taking a bat from the car’s trunk and breaking the glass door leading into the business.

Dad Jokes, I had to

Dad Jokes are a thing now and I saw where some have made a game where you try not to laugh at Dad Jokes. Dad jokes are fun! My son is 20 and I still tell dad jokes around him, I have to. I can not or at least refuse too stop myself. I thought, since it is Friday and you may be around you children or grandchildren this weekend, that I would share some of my favorite Bible-based Dad Jokes with you.

Do You Worship Your Worship Experience?

Could it be that, sometimes, the thing we are drawn to worship apart from God is worship itself? The act of it as it takes place in our church services? The music, the dark lighting, the instruments playing behind the prayer? Is this what I crave more than God?

The Truth About Truth

The truth that sets men free is a WHO! It’s not just the Bible. It’s not simply doctrine. It’s the Son. It’s Jesus Himself. If the truth that set men free was simply doctrine, then Jesus would not have had to die. John 1:17 tells us that “grace and truth were realized in Jesus Christ.” Jesus is truth personified.

Why There’s No Such Thing as African Christianity

Let the world wage its cultural and ethnic fights. It has no common ground. However, let them see something totally different when they come into the Christian church. Let them find a gospel that has broken down all our barriers, a gospel that causes believers to work lovingly toward mutual edification rather than to create yet another war zone in the guise of acknowledging our ethnicity, which may or may not have been previously suppressed.
Brothers and sisters, we are Christians who happen to be Africans, not Africans who happen to be Christians. Let us get the biblical emphasis right!

5 Leadership Insights I Wish I Knew 25 Years Ago

1. Silence from your team does not mean they agree with you.
2. Collaboration will get you further down the road.
3. You probably can’t over-communicate.
4. Others mirror a leader’s emotional temperature.
5. Less is more.

The Old Testament Is Dying: An Interview with Brent A. Strawn

I discuss all of these seven topics in considerable detail in the book, but, for me, proof of the Old Testament’s decline is found in the facts that:

1. many Christians know very little of it
2. many Christians “mispronounce” the few parts they do know (the Old Testament is all mean, for instance, or all happy) and
3. many Christians can’t carry on a coherent conversation in the language of Scripture.

The last point could be contrasted, I suspect, with how many Christians would have no problem discussing their favorite episode of a TV show they recently binged, or the names of their favorite sports stars or football coaches, and so on and so forth. But ask them to identify their favorite chapter in Jonah or Ruth—or Matthew or 1 Peter—and I suspect you’d get the oddest of looks (and responses!).

A majority of U.S. teens fear a shooting could happen at their school, and most parents share their concern

In the aftermath of the deadly shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, a majority of American teens say they are very or somewhat worried about the possibility of a shooting happening at their school – and most parents of teens share that concern, according to new Pew Research Center surveys of teens ages 13 to 17 and parents with children in the same age range.

Airline Travel Is Really Safe. Let’s Keep It That Way.

Airline travel kills fewer people than swing sets (20 deaths a year), or bathtubs (300 deaths a year) or staircases (1,600 deaths a year). Flying on a U.S. carrier especially may be the safest thing a human can do aside from sleeping. (Actually, sleeping is pretty dangerous: 450 people die each year from falling out of bed.)

Passengers fail to wear oxygen masks properly aboard emergency Southwest flight

A photo of passengers wearing their oxygen masks improperly circulated on social media in the aftermath of the incident. The masks covered only their mouths, whereas safety demonstrations instruct passengers to cover their nose and mouth.

The Surprising Link Between Language and Depression

Far better indicators, he says, are the presence of “absolutist words” in a person’s speech or writing, such as “always,” “constantly,” and “completely.” When overused, they tend to indicate that someone has a “black-and-white view of the world,” Al-Mosaiwi says. An analysis of posts on different internet forums found that absolutist words were 50 percent more prevalent on anxiety and depression forums, and 80 percent more prevalent on suicidal ideation forums.

Creepy Chick-fil-A and New York(er) Values: The Shock (and Slander) are Getting Old

It’s easy to shake our fists at a culture that seems to at every turn want to make religious expression not easier, but harder for people of faith.
But, we must remember that our anger and frustration will never win hearts or change minds for Christ. Those emotions are a barrier to loving and caring for others well in Jesus’ name.
Just as we wish to be given the freedom to hold out views, so too should we give others the latitude to express theirs. Open discussion and debate about these issues can be helpful; in person screaming matches and comment wars on social media are not.

6 Reasons Many Pastors Don’t Need An Office Any More

1. We’re More Mobile Now
2. People Don’t Drop By As Much As They Used To
3. Offices Cost Too Much
4. An Office Can Reinforce A Punch-the-Clock Mentality
5. An Office Can Stifle Creativity
6. An Office Can Isolate Us

7 Ways To Grow Church Attendance By Increasing Engagement

1. Challenge People To Serve
2. Provide A Clear Path Toward Involvement
3. Focus All Programs Around Your Mission
4. Make It Uncomfortable To Stay Disengaged
5. Preach Action, Not Knowledge
6. Try Using Active Language
7. Reward Progress

Set a Table-Full of Dis-Likes

Instead of xenophobia—a fear of those who are different than us—the church is to adopt philoxenos—a love of those who are different from us. We are to be hospitable to those who are different than us. We are to sit at table with the stranger.

Increasing Leadership By Decreasing Control

To decrease control by trusting that God awaits to take all of us into a new horizon of wonder and awe will, in effect, increase our leadership skills. When a few in America dared cross the mighty Mississippi and head for the West they had no concept of Rocky Mountains, Arizona Desert, nor the eventual downtown Los Angeles. So it is in the church. Each day we stand at the Mississippi of spiritual potential with a call from the Spirit to cross it.

Muslims in America: Immigrants and those born in U.S. see life differently in many ways

When Pew Research Center surveyed American Muslim adults in 2017, the findings revealed important similarities between foreign-born and U.S.-born Muslims. For example, immigrants and U.S.-born Muslims engage in religious practices at about the same levels. At the same time, there are also important differences. Immigrants tend to have secured a stronger socioeconomic foothold than U.S.-born Muslims, and they generally express more positive opinions about their place in America.

Generation X — not millennials — is changing the nature of work

The generation that is quickly occupying the majority of business leadership roles is one that’s grown up playing video games, spends the most time shopping online, and uses social media more habitually than any other generation.
If you were thinking it’s millennials, that’s probably because they’ve dominated the media’s focus for the past decade. But it’s actually Generation X, which covers those born between 1965 and 1981 by our definition.

Women Who Watched “The X-Files” Pursued More Careers In STEM

Women who watched The X-Files regularly were 50% more likely to work in STEM, and nearly two-thirds of the women surveyed who work in STEM said Scully served as a role model.

Google’s astounding new search tool will answer any question by reading thousands of books

Google now has a way to convene that kind of forum—in half a second. Speaking to TED curator Chris Anderson yesterday (April 13), legendary futurist Ray Kurzweil introduced “Talk to Books” a new way to find answers on the internet that should bring pleasure to researchers, bookworms and anyone seeking to expand their thinking on a range of topics.

For over 5 years now, I’ve been regularly publishing links on my blog. Most are recent; some are older, but relevant.

I mainly do this because I appreciate others who do the same. Many of the links that I give out come from others who compile such lists.

Do you find such links useful? Do you read other sources of articles that you find to be helpful?