Fake News

Hi All,

Fake news had been in the - well - news a lot lately.  For example, if you conduct a Google search for 'fake news' you get over 150 million results.  Interestingly readers get results from the 'Top Stories' section - at least as of 6/17/17 at about 10:34am - The Guardian, Fox 5 Atlanta and Newsweek.  All of which are verifiable news outlets and sources.

This blog entry is not a discussion on politics, political parties or people involved in the government. Its simply an entry in the blog that deals with fake news.  Onward!

Wikipedia has a very unbiased, lengthy and comprehensive entry on fake news.  Click here for the entry and click here for the link to a discussion of twentieth century and twenty-first century fake news.  It makes for interesting reading.

Snopes is a website that is fairly well known. It basically debunks urban legends.  However, this link discusses specific examples of fake news on the site.  This next link fact checks various articles and news events as well.

FactCheck.org is a  website that has, as its mission, "to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. We monitor the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews and news releases. Our goal is to apply the best practices of both journalism and scholarship, and to increase public knowledge and understanding.
FactCheck.org is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.

So...FactCheck.org is unbiased, accurate, fair and a great place to learn more about fake news.  This next article is called 'How to Spot Fake News?' and was written in November 2016 - very current and timely and interesting.

In addition, the Viral Spiral page has a list of some of the claims they get asked about the most.  Finally, all of FactCheck.org's articles called 'Ask FactCheck', can be found at this link.

Finally, click on this link from the venerable New York Times - its basically a search of the site for the term 'fake news'. 

Other interesting and/or useful fake news sites include, HuffPost.com, Fake News-NPR and this link from the Guardian (a UK newspaper) titled, 'What is fake news? How to spot it and wha tyo ucan do to stop it?'

Enjoy the link and the articles and how to become an even better news consumer!

Regards,
Stu

Voting, Elections and the Electoral College

Hi All,

Well, today is the day...its time to vote...

Where do I vote you ask?  Click here to find out where you vote. 

To find out the answers to other voting questions click here.

What the heck is the electoral college?  Click here (How Stuff Works), here (Huffington Post), and here (Washington Post) to find out more about the electoral college and how it affects the vote!

How do you find out who wins the election?  Click here (Politico), here (Wall Street Journal) or here  (CNN) to get real-time information on election 2016.

Regards,
Stu

The Halfway Point in 2015: Mid-Year Reviews

Hi All,

I can't believe it.  The halfway point in 2015 is just about here.  Tonight is the halfway point - which means that we still have half a whole year left.

Mid-points are a good time to summarize where we've been - and where we're going to go in the next six months of the year...forthwith, a whole bunch of useful sites that will help you chart the future six months of 2015 on a whole host of personal topics!

The website Generation X Finance  (which bills itself as 'Helping a Unique Generation Achieve Financial Independence) has an article title, 'How to Do a Mid-Year Financial Checkup - Things to Think About This Summer'  Important parts of the article include reviewing goals, progress and your taxes and, believe it or not, saving for Christmas 2015...

Lifehack.org has an article titled, 'How to Do a Personal Mid-Year Review?'  Three parts of this article were notable: Making a list of everything that you feel proud of over the past six months, making a list of any new goals or challenges (and noting any progress) that you taken on over the last six months and identifying areas of your life that you'd like to focus on over the next six months seems particularly poignant, relevant and helpful. 

Career Realism (whose tagline is 'Because Every Job is Temporary') has an article titled, '10 Questions to Ask Yourself Today'.  This short article is divided into 2 sections, 'Look-Back Questions' and 'Look-Forward Questions'.  Some salient points from each include thinking about  key accomplishments, mistakes made, time management, top 3 personal goals, learning and knowledge and relationship development.  How did you do on the last point?

Finally, from the Huffington Post comes this article, titled, 'Time For a Personal Mid-Year
Review: This is How! (What We Can Learn From Business)' This article gives the writer in all of us something to do. For example, the article suggests that we:
1. Write down the goals that you had set yourself at the beginning of the year.
2. Write down how you have 'performed' in these categories.
3. For each category, write down one or two of the biggest challenges you have had...
5. Write down in a maximum of two sentences how you wish to achieve open goals on your list.

As you can see there is a lot of writing and thinking...but it will help you get more proactive and engaged in your mid-year life review.  

While we are at the half-way point in the year...there are 180 days left to achieve those goals that you've set down!  You can do it! (Click here for a list of motivational quotes from BrainyQuote.com.

Enjoy the links - and good luck on your goals, aspirations, hopes and dreams.

Regards,
Stu

Hi All,

As if you didn't know already, the Super Bowl is being played this Sunday.  Click on this link to learn more about the big game!

However, I want to do something a bit different this year!  I want to talk about the various alternative things that folks can do if they do NOT watch the Super Bowl this year.

This link - from Gawker - has a bunch of different ideas that you can try if you don't want to watch the Super Bowl. Some of their ideas include eating out at a restaurant, going to the theater or a gym or go shopping....

Interestingly enough, ESPN has a bunch of ideas for things to do if you don't want to watch the game...click here for ESPN's take on the topic. 

The Huffington Post chimed in on the topic as well.  Click here for details - and they list 9 different things that you can do instead of watching SB49! Wisebread has an even larger list of 49 (!!) things you can do on Super Bowl Sunday - other than watch the game! 

Finally, Hubpages.com has an article titled, 'I Hate Football! 25 Things to Do Instead of Watching the Super Bowl'.  

That should give you enough options to figure out what to do for the 4 long, interminable hours that the Super Bowl takes to be played. 

Enjoy the links - hope you enjoy staying busy!

Regards,
Stu

Success!!!

Hi All,

Success comes in all sorts of shapes and sizes and forms.  For example, is the person who has 3 grown, independent children more or less successful than a school teacher? Or is the wealthy investment banker more or less successful than an award winning journalist?  Lots of different examples can be generated, but the one thing in common is success?  What is success? 

And, more importantly, how can you achieve it?

Readers can click on this link from Business Insider for an article titled, '11 Traits All Successful Leaders Share'. Some of the traits are obvious (self-confidence,  self-control and they have plans); other traits are less obvious (they are exceptionally likable, they are sympathetic, they pay attention to details)...


Also discussed in the article is a book written by Napoleon Hill called 'Think and Grow Rich'.  Click here for reviews of the book from Amazon.com - where you can, of course, purchase the book if you would like.  Alternatively, you can inter-library loan the book from the library by clicking on this link.

And if you think you are starting at the bottom in your current job or work; click on this link from, again, Business Insider, for an article entitled, 'Humble First Jobs of Successful People'.   Successful people mentioned in the article include Lloyd Blankfein, Richard Branson, President Obama, Donald Trump and Michael Bloomberg.  Interesting - and fun - article to read.

And, for a more mainstream article, click on this link from the Huffington Post for an article entitled, '18 Ways to Live a Successful Life'.  It is both interesting and inspiring and gets to the heart of what success truly is.

Enjoy the links and here's to being successful!  Good luck!

Regards,
Stu