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U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson is a two-term Republican from Wisconsin, a staunch conservative who claimed the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot was "by and large" a peaceful protest and that he would have been more concerned for his own safety if it had been Black Lives Matter protesters instead. A former corporate CEO in Oshkosh, he's recently been accused of spreading misinformation about COVID vaccines.

He's also a native Minnesotan.

"Johnson was born in Mankato, Minnesota, the son of Jeanette Elizabeth (nee Thisius) and Dale Robert Johnson," reads his Wikipedia page. It says he graduated from Edina High School (wrongly, it turns out keep reading) and the University of Minnesota in 1977 (that part seems to be true).

Sensing that elusive local angle, I set out a few weeks ago to try to connect with some of Johnson's Edina classmates. I soon learned he didn't actually graduate from Edina a reminder that Wikipedia isn't always right. The bio on Johnson's U.S. Senate page provides clarity: "He gained early acceptance to the University of Minnesota, so he skipped his senior year of High School."

Still, surely some Edina contemporaries remember a future U.S. senator in their ranks? Well, no. I connected by phone or e-mail with more than a dozen Edina '73 grads, which would have been Johnson's graduating year.

"I don't remember Ron Johnson," said Curt Barton even though they are two of the four boys identified in a Latin Club picture from the '72 yearbook, when they were both juniors. The photo shows Johnson and two others stretching a classmate on a mock torture rack.

That Latin Club photo was courtesy of another classmate. She lives in the Eau Claire area now and said she's appalled by Johnson's politics, but didn't know until I told her that they were high school classmates.

That was common: Not only did classmates not remember him, they didn't know they went to school with a future senator.

Johnson's U.S. Senate spokesman did not respond to an e-mail seeking better leads on his Minnesota roots.

Johnson's junior class picture can be found in the '72 yearbook. Also in that class was one Jane Curler, now Jane Johnson; she and Ron were married in 1977.

"I did reach out to quite a few classmates and no one knew either of them!" Pamela Anderson, who organized the last class reunion, wrote to me in an e-mail. "Kind of crazy."

It does seem a bit unusual that a future politician didn't cut a wider social swath in high school. Think of the iconic picture of teenage Bill Clinton shaking hands with John F. Kennedy.

Most of the alumni I talked to stressed their class was big, at nearly 1,000 students. And it seems littered with success stories: Doctors, lawyers, business executives and entrepreneurs were among those I connected with.

The closest I got to the Johnsons was Paul Olson, a Chaska doctor.

"I knew Jane. I remember Jane," he said. "I don't know if she'd remember me. I don't remember much about her. And I don't I can't remember Ron."

More here:
Wisconsin's Ron Johnson: native Minnesotan, but few remember - Minneapolis Star Tribune

A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes, the old saying goes. These days, thanks to the internet, lies lap the truth even more quickly: A 2019 study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab found that falsehoods are 70 percent more likely to be retweeted than the truth, and false tweets reach their first 1,500 people six times faster.

Tara Lockhart, San Francisco State Universitys director of writing programs, wants truth to start winning the race and shes working to even the odds. A professor of English Language and Literature, Lockhart is co-editor of Literacy and Pedagogy in an Age of Misinformation and Disinformation (Parlor Press), a new guide for educators. The book, available for free download, includes essays and interviews with experts on information literacy from education, activism, journalism and more. (SF State Senior Assistant Librarian Nicole Allensworth contributes a chapter on the role of librarians and a bevy of critical information literacy strategies.)

In the era of post-truth rhetoric, teachers must help students learn to approach texts with skepticism and gain a deep understanding of how information circulates, Lockhart says. She recently shared more of her insights into the vital part educators can play in the battle against lies.

What are your definitions of misinformation and disinformation?

The difference relies on intent. Misinformation is inaccurate information. But disinformation intends to deceive or misrepresent sometimes for financial gain, sometimes for political gain, sometimes to mess with democracy and create instability. There is an added level of maliciousness in disinformation. Misinformation can just be a mistake, a typo or something thats decontextualized.

What are the consequences when disinformation is widespread?

People start to distrust government, institutions, distrust their neighbors, [and] they turn to fear-based rhetoric about certain populations or certain kinds of people. Then we lose some of that common ground, that common fabric, that is essential to a democracy.

But people can also be duped. Now, propaganda or disinformation can be surrounding you. We think of research thats come out about echo chambers and our little social bubbles on social media. You can be in a whole world filled with disinformation and perhaps not even realize it.

Having more accurate information or being able to discern what is accurate and weigh different types of information against each other might lead you to do something like get a vaccine that might save your life. Or not be sucked into a fringe political element that might in some way endanger your life. I think that most people, even people who are attracted to something like a conspiracy theory, like to think they want more information. The more information, the better. But the critical ability to use discernment comes into play.

Lets consider a practical question that educators might ask. Can students cite Wikipedia as a source in their papers?

Thats a perfect example. It goes to that rule-based information literacy that has previously guided how we teach. No Wikpedia sources. Ever. Banned. Bad. Right?

Instead of that, the articles and interviews in this book foreground the critical information literacy perspective. This more critical approach helps us get inside that Wikipedia entry. Lets see what the citations are. Lets see what the editing history is. Lets see whos editing it. Which parts of the entry have been deleted, erased, updated? And given all of that context, we can verify whether that information on that Wikipedia entry is pretty valid or not. [If] I wrote my own entry for myself [laughs] with no one else weighing in on it, its of course much less valid.

Whats crucial is teaching students how to conduct that behind-the-scenes work and bringing a critical lens to it. Thats more important versus the rule. Black and white rules may make teaching and learning easier, but theyre a shortcut to students actually learning how to gauge the truth of information, and understand the impacts of how information is created and circulated, for themselves.

Matt Itelson

Continued here:
English Professor Fights to Keep Truth Alive in Post-Truth Age | College of Liberal & Creative Arts - SF State News

A month-long competition to increase the number of Arab author pages on Wikipedia is starting on June 1.

The initiative by Emirates Literature Foundation's Kateb Maktub, in collaboration with Google, calls on the public to write more articles about Arab authors in the Arabic language.

Ahead of its launch, the foundation is offering free webinars on Sunday, May 30, on how to create author pages on Wikipedia, so people with no prior experience can also take part.

The person with the most articles will be awarded $500, with runners-up getting $400 and $300 for second and third place, respectively.

A second round of the competition will start on August 1, when the person with the most articles across both cycles will get the Grand Slam Prize, which is an all-expenses-paid trip to the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature in Dubai in 2022. Runners-up will receive subscriptions to Abjjad, a social network for readers, authors and bloggers in the Middle East, which gives access to more than 30,000 Arabic books.

Participants will be split into two categories: one for experts and one for novices. Each article would need to be between 300 to 500 words and structured according to Wikipedia guidelines, including an introduction to the author, notable works, awards, biography and references to reliable sources.

The foundation has a list of 6,000 authors participants can choose from. Once they've picked a name, they'll have 48 hours to upload the article to ensure there are no duplicates.

Many of these Arab authors have no trace online. We want to see their body of work and their biographies, but the information is often lacking or of poor quality

Ahlam Bolooki, director of Emirates Airline Festival of Literature

It will be judged by a committee of experts, certified editors and administrators from the Arab Wikipedia community.

The Kateb Maktub initiative is an important step in the right direction for bringing Arab literature to a wider audience and shining a light on Arab authors," said festival director Ahlam Bolooki. "The Grand Slam prize is a unique chance for literature lovers to meet some of the greatest authors at our festival, and I am sure we will see fierce competition.

The project first launched in December 2020, when the foundation announced its bid to promote the work of Arab authors within and outside the region by building an army of Wikipedia editor volunteers to share the region's literary culture with the world.

Between September 2019 and September 2020, the number of Arab author pages on Wikipedia grew by 100, but within four months of the initiative launching, the number of pages increased by 4,800, according to the foundation.

The goal of Kateb Maktub is to publish 15,000 Wikipedia pages dedicated to Arab authors in English and Arabic by December 2022.

We always want to invite new talent and future stars of Arabic literature and, each year, we face the same problem, Bolooki said when the initiative first launched.

Many of these Arab authors have no trace online. We want to see their body of work and their biographies, but the information is often lacking or of poor quality. Sometimes it is even questionable if the information is related to the right person.

Bolooki said such a situation warrants alarm.

If a literature foundation in the heart of the Arab world is having difficulties finding Arab authors, can you imagine how difficult it would be for regular readers to find them?

If you havent heard of a book or author, you will simply not read them.

More information is at katebmaktub.org

Read the original here:
Emirates Literature Foundation launches competition to increase the number of Arab authors on Wikipedia - The National

The female rapper known as Boog the Bandit from Ohio got a shot on Thursday night during a robbery attempt. The news is getting viral in Columbus. She was a famous rapper and her real name is Courtney Bruce,She was seen in the hospital around 6:10 p with her wounds of a gunshot. She entered the hospital alone for her treatment, sated Ohios police.

While Bruce was inside his car when he got shooted multiple times and he wasnt alone, he is with one of his friends who is 26 years old, this is confirmed by Columbus Dispatch. This man was drop Bruce at the hospital and that man who droves the car was fine and not injured,Bruce recently released one of her new albums titled Heart Away the album received lots of views and highly appreciated by the people. While other two videos Hot Topic: and Risky of her also getting viral and received views in millions.

Bruce was the model for urban clothing brands including Rob Kardashians Arthur George Socks and Blck Pyramid Clothing of R&B singers. She was a model for clothing before she became a fan as a rapper and a singer.

Here some precious words from Boog, I dont have to reach any destination in my life neither I have been there, I just want happiness, hence Im feeling so frank, open and familiar, Im all want to pursue the real happiness..

She also added, you never go anywhere without Gid as he is the one who already destined your life and you must follow that path.

Lacey Crisp, tweeted, My heart is devastated when I get to know about Boog The Bandit this is the most disheartening news of my life. Boog was shoot during a robbery act last night. Boogs mother told me that she was tensed about the mothers who lost their childrens in the Columbus city.

Courtney Bruce was so hardworking and she follows her passion which provides her success and made her famous. She was one of the finest and well-known rappers of Columbus. She was shot in numerous albums.

Read this article:
Boog the Bandit (Columbus Rapper) Real Name, Age, Instagram, IG, Wikipedia, Bio! - Get India News

As part of a new series, TechRadar Pro has asked designers from freelance platform Fiverr to give the branding of a selection of well-known companies a makeover.

The idea isn't to return to the drawing board completely, only to imagine what famous branding might look like with a few tweaks here and there.

Last time round, a design expert reworked the Twitter logo and UI. This time, UK-based designer Kevinsdesign gave Wikipedia the same treatement, and also talked us through his decision-making process. Here's what he came up with:

Overall goal"To reinvision the digital product of Wikipedia focusing on a way to enhance the user experience for a particular user group or flow."

Research"This project was largely based on my personal insights and thoughts on best practice, however I was keen to do a small micro research project - this took the form of 4 timeline interviews. These interviews encouraged the user to talk about past experiences with Wikipedia, their goals and frictions points."

Homepage"Ill be honest the homepage of Wikipedia is a page I have never visited until now, not a single person brought it up in the interviews, so to be perfectly honest I saw this as a nice opportunity to make some UI porn. I took what was there and visually reinvisioned it, I wanted to create a design that gave a feel or knowledge and respectability but also fun and modern."

"In terms of function I did add in a few new things like language selection being brought to the forefront and a more prominent search bar."

Article page"Aside from just a general restyle of the article page and just making it look a little cooler, a few ideas came out of the research:

Accessibility"This is where I spent the most time. Wikipedia is accessed by billions worldwide with the common goal of consuming written articles, however reading isnt a given for everyone, between 5-10% of the population are dyslexic (myself included), even more have visual impairments and so on. Things like colour contrast, font size, and even black text on white backgrounds can make content very hard to consume."

"I asked the question could I bake in accessibility options to the new design that would break down these barriers and make Wikipedia more accessible to people. The new accessibility option in the menu allows user to customize the setting to their needs, be it making the font size bigger, making the content seizure safe, changing the font to child friendly and even adding a color overlay to the article which for many dyslexics massively helps them read."

See the article here:
We asked an expert to redesign Wikipedia - here's what they came up with - TechRadar