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PDF version  |  Four Moves Blog
Four Moves & a Habit
The 5 Ws

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Watch 2 or 3 of the videos below. Then scroll to the bottom of this shelf for additional info.

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something (such as a headline) designed to make readers want to click on a hyperlink especially when the link leads to content of dubious value or interest… See the full definition

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#LikeAGirl / Best Branded Content / 2015 One Screen

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Directed by: Ian Spohr Edited by : Joey Schober Produced by : Faye Kingslee Original Score by : Sherri Chung Animation by : Jorge Estrada Sound Design by : Michael Huang Make up by : Yoko Kagaya Location : Fast Forward, Hollywood Actors : Chris Myers, Anastasia Baranova, Jae Rose, Ian Gray, Faye Kingslee

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Volvo Trucks - The Epic Split feat. Van Damme (Live Test)

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Watch Jean-Claude Van Damme carry out his famous split between two reversing trucks. Never done before, JCVD says it's the most epic of splits -- what do you think? Please share & comment! This live test was set up to demonstrate the precision and directional stability of Volvo Dynamic Steering -- a world first technology that makes the new Volvo FM easier to drive.

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Watch only the first 4 minutes of the Scarecrow video.

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Chipotle Scarecrow - Universal - HD (Sneak Peek) Gameplay Trailer

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Chipotle Scarecrow by Chipotle Mexican Grill Chipotle presents, "The Scarecrow." Help the Scarecrow rescue the City of Plenty from Crow Foods, the powerful industrial food corporation that has taken over the city. Tilt and tap your way through four unique worlds to protect vulnerable veggies, rescue caged animals, and bring fresh food to the citizens of Plenty, all while dodging the menacing Crowbots.

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Dove Real Beauty Sketches | You’re more beautiful than you think (3mins)

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Pedigree K9FM - Pedigree - Commercial Ad

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Pedigree Adverts & Commercials Archive Pedigree K9FM Dogs can get stressed when they're home alone. Which is why experts recommend leaving the radio playing to keep them company. The problem is, it's radio for humans.So, PEDIGREE launched a radio station designed just for dogs: K9FM.

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The LEGO® Movie - Official Main Trailer [HD]

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OK Go - I Won't Let You Down - Official Video

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1. Did you like the videos you watched? Why or why not?

2. How did each video make you feel? Did they evoke a specific emotion? Can you identify it?

3. Did you want to watch the entire video? Why or why not? If yes, what made you want to keep watching? If no, what made you lose interest?

4. Did the videos you watched tell a story, identify a social problem, advocate for positive social change, advertise a product, or something else?

5. What was the primary purpose of each of the videos you watched? Was there a secondary purpose? If so, what do you think it was?

6. What was the target audience for each video?

7. What company sponsored each video?

8. Do you feel differently about any of these companies as a result of watching these videos? If yes, do you have a more positive or more negative impression? Explain your answer.

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Is providing balance in reporting always appropriate?

Can balance in reporting lend credibility to specious points of view or information?

Where and how should journalists draw that line?

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Credit: Meghan Rose, Martha Stuit & Amy Lee Washtenaw Community College Bailey Library

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Common Sense Media's Fake or Real Handout

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Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers - Simple Book Production

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Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers by Michael A. Caulfield is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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/en/thenow/how-crispr-could-change-the-world/content/

What is fake news?

The Internet is an incredible resource for news and information, but unfortunately not everything online is trustworthy. Fake news is any article or video containing untrue information disguised as a credible news source. While fake news is not unique to the Internet, it has recently become a big problem in today's digital world.

Fake news typically comes from sites that specialize in bogus or sensationalized stories. It tends to use provocative headlines, like "Celebrity endorses not brushing teeth" or "Politician selling toxic waste on the black market". These headlines can seem suspicious or even unbelievable to the point of being silly, making it tempting to think of fake news as harmless.

In recent years, however, fake news has been responsible for a great deal of misinformation because more and more people have begun consuming and believing these articles without bothering to fact check or even read beyond the headlines. This acceptance of incorrect information has led to confusion, panic, and an inability to discuss the actual facts surrounding current events.

How did fake news become such a problem?

A fake news article is designed to outrage and shock, causing some readers to share it on Facebook, Twitter, or another type of social media platform without questioning it. Sharing the article exposes it to more people who may be outraged by it, who also share it without question, and so on. This cycle continues until a sizeable number of people believe this fake story is the truth.

Why do people write fake news?

Writers of fake news typically create it for one of two reasons: to fulfill a social agenda, like angering a population against a political opponent; or to earn advertising revenue through visits to their sites. Unfortunately, business is booming.

Just one fake news writer claimed to earn $10,000 per month from the advertising revenue of his articles, and he said he planned to keep writing until the money stopped coming in. With an unknown number of writers drafting multiple fake articles each day, the flood of bad information may continue for quite some time.

What's being done about it?

Online giants like and are attempting to crack down on fake news by banning suspicious sites from advertising on their platforms and asking users to report dishonest articles. However, many critics feel that Google, Facebook, and other online services still aren't doing enough.

Unfortunately, fake news writers will likely continue to create new sites and methods to get around any digital roadblocks. This means the best way to prevent fake news from spreading is to teach users how to identify fake news themselves. That means you!

How can I tell if an article is fake?

Fake articles can be difficult to spot at first, which is why it's good to develop a habit of checking the accuracy of any article you read, especially ones you find through social media. Here are some things you can do if you come across an article that seems fishy:

Enter the keywords of the story into a search engine and get a second opinion from a credible news site with verifiable sources.

Check the dates involved in the article. Fake news writers sometimes take a real story from the past, put an outrageous headline on it, and try to pass it off as a current event.

Find the source of the author's information for the article. Is the source credible?

Does the website's appearance look a little strange? Some fake news sites mimic the appearance of legitimate news sources, tricking the casual reader.

Take a look at the headlines of other stories from the same website. Are most of them hard to believe? Shocking? Inflammatory? If so, question the website's practices.

Is the article actually a joke? When we say fake news, we aren't talking about comedy sites like The Onion and ClickHole, which write humorous stories based on current events.

You can also confirm information at fact-checking sites like PolitiFact.com, FactCheck.org, and Snopes.com. These sources specialize in fact checking and debunking inaccurate stories and claims.

It takes time to make sure an article is honest and accurate, but fake news writers are hoping no one will check the accuracy of their work. Remember, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Take care before sharing articles online.

/en/thenow/what-is-trolling/content/

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Fake news appears to be everywhere these days. Use this articles to take the necessary steps to ensure what you are reading is accurate.

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Defining Confirmation Bias (Video)
From Facing History and Ourselves

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Free Tutorial: Learn more about clickbait and how it is used in today's high-tech world in this free lesson.

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https://images.google.com/

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Google Reverse Image Search - Quick Guide

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https://www.tineye.com/

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We see hundreds or even thousands of images a day, and almost all of them have been digitally manipulated in some way. Some have gotten basic color corrections or simple Instagram filter effects, while others have received full on Photoshop jobs to completely transform the subject. It turns out humans aren't very good at recognizing when an image has been manipulated, even if the change is fairly substantial. Hany Farid is a professor of computer science at Dartmouth College who specializes in photo forensics, and while he can't share all of his fancy software tools for detecting editing trickery, he has shared a few tips for authenticating images on your own.

Try reverse image searching

Before you start trying to CSI an image too hard, you can often debunk a faked photo by finding its source using a reverse image search. Google includes this function as part of its Images suite and looks for the exact image, as well as images that are similar in both subject matter and color aesthetics.

Another powerful tool is Tineye, which performs a similar function, but often returns fewer results that are closer to exact matches, which can make them easier to sort through.

"Often if you just do a reverse image search, you'll find it right away," says Farid. "You'll see the original image that someone took from Getty Images and then added a UFO to the sky or something like that."

Reverse image search can also be a useful tool if you suspect someone is stealing your social media photos and impersonating you. Upload your own photos to the tools and you can see where they appear on the web.

Look for weirdness

The first step in analyzing an image involves a logical analysis, an area in which humans typically perform much better than computers-at least for now. "Computers are very good at measuring this fine grain details like compression artifacts and inconsistencies in geometry," says Farid. "But if someone created a picture of a boat sailing down the middle of the road, a computer might not see anything wrong with that."

Look at an image closely and examine objects that may have been inserted, or look for evidence that other objects may have been removed. Farid warns against zooming in too far, however, because that can introduce its own obstacles. "Sometimes if you zoom into an image up to 500%, it's very easy to look at something that's perfectly valid, like artifacts from lens distortions or noise, and start attributing that to manipulation," says Farid. He recommends zooming to 200% or 300% maximum to avoid false positives.

This is also the time to look for errors in scale and perspective, which are some of the trickiest things to fix in a fake. Does one person in a group photo have an abnormally large head? Does an object look like it's sitting at an odd angle? These are warning signs that warrant an even closer look.

Check the EXIF data

When a digital camera captures an image, it appends a whole array of information called EXIF data to the image file. This data includes all the critical camera settings, as well as other info like GPS data if it's available (which is typically the case with smartphone photos, unless the person has intentionally turned location settings off).

If you have the location of the photo, you can plug it into Google Maps and use Street View to get a general idea of what the location might actually look like. The Street View scene won't necessarily be 100 percent accurate and up-to-date, but it can be a good starting point.

You can see the EXIF data for a photo by opening it in Photoshop or another image editing program, but there are also websites that will show you the data, like Exifdata.com. Photo-sharing site Flickr also displays a lot of metadata when it's available. Both Windows and Mac can also give you some metadata if you right click on the file in Explorer or Finder.

If you have some photography knowledge, you this is where you can leverage that to your advantage. For instance, if you can see that the photo used a long shutter speed, like 1/10th of a second, then moving objects should have motion blur. If you see a completely sharp car in the frame, that should send up a warning flag.

You can also sometimes find the original pixel dimensions of the image. This may not sound very useful, but you can easily look up the typical image dimensions of a photo from a particular camera and then compare them to the file you're currently viewing. If the final version is smaller, that indicates that the photo may have been cropped to exclude information.

Also in the EXIF data is a software tag. "If an image is opened up in Photoshop and then saved, the metadata will then say "Photoshop" and then whatever version they used," says Farid. He warns, however, that this tag doesn't necessarily indicate that a photo is trying to trick you. Many photographs go through Photoshop or some other editing program for simple adjustments like color correction, or even just resizing.

Examine the shadows

We know that the shadow cast by an object will appear opposite the light that caused it. Using that information, investigators can actually map lines between shadows, objects, and the corresponding light sources to see if the image is physically possible.

"Out in the physical 3D world, I have a linear constraint on a shadow, an object, and a light source," says Farid. "That means I can find all the objects that are casting shadows-as long as I can very clearly attribute a point on a shadow to a point on an object in the image."

One of the original examples in the study about people's ability to recognized edited photos showed a man whose face had been flipped so the light source was landing on the same side as the shadow. It can be easy to identify once you're looking for it.

Mess with it in Photoshop
(The comparison above show two versions of the same image. The one on the right has been subjected to the levels adjustments that clearly show brush adjustments over the front license plate)
If you have access to Photoshop yourself, there are a few adjustments you can make to try and draw out artifacts that you might miss with your naked eye.

One tool Farid suggests using is Levels. You can access this by pressing Command + L (Mac) or Control + L (PC). "If you bring the white point all the way down really close to the black point, what's going to happen is that the narrow range of black will expand out quite a bit," says Farid. "If somebody has taken the eraser tool and erased something in a dark area, you can see the traces of the tool." The same effect happens if you drag the black point all the way up to draw more detail out of the image highlights.

You can try a few other Photoshop tricks to shed some light on alterations. Cranking up the contrast or the sharpness will help emphasize hard edges in the photo, which can sometimes occur when an object is pasted in. Farid also suggests inverting the colors on an image (control + I or command + I) to get a new perspective on the photo, which could jolt your brain into drawing out some irregularities.

Look for patterns

Pattern recognition is one area where dedicated researchers with specialized software tools have a real advantage.

There are some patterns you can recognize with your eyeballs. A novice Photoshop user may well leave repeating patterns behind when trying to clone out an object. Zoom out and look at the image from afar to see if your eye can pick up on any patterns, then zoom in closer to see if there might be some repeating objects in the scene.

One of the most effective methods researchers like Farid have at their disposal involves looking for pattern discrepancies in the noise created by an image sensor, which requires advanced software. "The noise has a specific pattern and when there's a part of the image that has more noise or less noise, then something has gone wrong," says Farid. If someone air brushes an image, for example, that effect will change the pattern in a way a computer can recognize. You might even spot it with your naked eye if the retoucher is particularly heavy-handed. If you have ever noticed a model's skin looking particularly flat and doll-like, you're seeing basically the same effect in action on a grand-and sometimes creepy-scale.

Researchers also often look for patterns in artifacts left from JPEG image compression. JPEG is a "lossy" format, which means it jettisons some information from the original file to save space and make it readable by a wider array of machines. This causes artifacts, or changes in the data introduced over time-especially when you save it more than once. "Imagine you go out and you buy your brand new iPhone and even the packaging is beautiful. Everything fits just right down to the tape," says Farid. "Try putting that back together and see what happens. It never works. The same thing is true of a digital file. When you unpack it in Photoshop, and then recompress it, you can't get it perfectly right. It leaves artifacts that we can recognize."

Be wary of online tools

There are places online where you can upload an image to check for warning signs of editing, but results can be very tricky to interpret. For instance, I uploaded this picture of corn to a popular site and it was flagged because it was "not an original camera image." I exported a JPEG from a DSLR raw file with some color corrections myself, so I know it wasn't faked, but it's still flagged. It didn't claim the photo was doctored, but it also casts doubt where there shouldn't be any.

There are some websites that can read the software tags, like this one that can tell you exactly what actions were taken in Lightroom when editing a photo. That's more useful, but you still need an understanding of the software itself to make an accurate interpretation.

There is software out there that can identify these more complex manipulations, but it's typically only available commercially, for security and law enforcement operations.

"Making that stuff public is tricky because the more I make the information public, the easier it is to circumvent," says Farid. "We release the details in scientific publications, but to really go back and implement all that technique would be really hard for somebody. That's the compromise we have right now.

Don't fall for false positives

The final step is realizing that sometimes things look altered when they aren't. "Photographs just look weird sometimes," says Farid.

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Spot faked photos using digital forensic techniques

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We see hundreds or even thousands of images a day, and almost all of them have been digitally manipulated in some way. Some have gotten basic color corrections or simple Instagram filter effects, while others have received full on Photoshop jobs to completely transform the subject.

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Mary Owen, NLP's Chicago program manager, explains why digital photos posted on social media and elsewhere online need to be checked, and shares some easy-to-use tips and tools for verifying them. This video comes from our Learn Channel, a collection of talks, lessons and other digital resources for 21st century learners.

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Search the history of over 310 billion web pages on the Internet.
https://archive.org/

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A: No. A widely circulated picture was altered to make it look that way.

FULL QUESTION

Seattle Seahawks - Did they burn the American flag?

FULL ANSWER

False stories claiming that Seattle Seahawks players burned the American flag surfaced online after President Donald Trump called on National Football League team owners to fire players who don't stand during the national anthem before games.

One story Facebook users flagged as potentially fake news says that Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett "was captured on camera burning an American flag" while the team remained in the locker room for the national anthem prior to a game against the Tennessee Titans on Sept. 24. A headline on another post says that another Seahawk, "NFL Player Richard Sherman, Who Burned U.S Flag, Has Been Thrown Out From The Team."

The Bennett story was based on a photo that was altered to show him holding a burning U.S. flag in a locker room as his teammates, including Sherman, looked on.

Sherman has not been released from the team. In fact, he was recently featured in an Oct. 13 post on the Seahawks' website about him visiting a young fan in the hospital.

The fake image of Bennett was first shared on the Facebook page of Vets for Trump in late September. The post, which the group took down, was up for two days and was shared 10,000 times, Vladimir Lemets, the social media director for Vets for Trump, told FactCheck.org.

The group later shared a link to an article admitting that the picture wasn't real, but arguing that it "was an accurate metaphor for what the NFL is doing to America."

Weeks after the bogus photo went viral, our readers are still asking about it.

For the record, the Seahawks posted the original, unedited picture on the team's official Twitter account on Jan. 3, 2016. It shows Sherman ( No. 25) and other Seattle players and coaches watching as Bennett does " a now-traditional post-victory dance" after a win against the Arizona Cardinals. There was no flag involved in the celebration.

What do you do in the victory locker room? You victory dance.#SEAvsAZ pic.twitter.com/qJoVyG6ZM8

- Seattle Seahawks (@Seahawks) January 4, 2016

Bennett is among several players who has silently demonstrated at games during the national anthem. He said at the start of the current NFL season that he would sit for the anthem in order to raise awareness about racism and intolerance.

Sherman, on the other hand, has said that he doesn't agree with Bennett and other players who don't stand during the anthem. Sherman said their message is important, but it is getting lost in the controversy over the anthem.
Editor's note: FactCheck.org is one of several organizations working with Facebook to help identify and label viral fake news stories flagged by readers on the social media network.
Washington Post. " Trump's full speech in support of Luther Strange in Alabama." YouTube video. 26 Sep 2017.

" BREAKING: SEATTLE SEAHAWKS MAY BE KICKED OUT OF NFL FOR WHAT THEY DID IN LOCKER ROOM." Defendrace.co. 10 Oct 2017.

Vets for Trump. Facebook.com. Accessed 13 Oct 2017.

Dillingham, Thomas. " The Image Is Photo-shopped, But Veterans Agree, It Is An Accurate Metaphor For What The NFL Is Doing To America." NationOneNews.com. 10 Oct 2017.

Seattle Seahawks Twitter feed. 3 Jan 2016.

Wyche, Steve. " Michael Bennett on why he will continue to sit during anthem." NFL.com. 14 Aug 2017.

Wisniewski, Lindsey. " All Seahawks players stand during the national anthem against Rams." USA Today. 8 Oct 2017.

" BREAKING: NFL Player Richard Sherman, Who Burned U.S. Flag, Has Been Thrown Out From The Team. Do You Support This? " StateFort.com. Accessed 16 Oct 2017.

Condotta, Bob. "' It's bigger than sports:' Why the Seahawks decided to stay in the locker room during Sunday's anthem." Seattle Times. 24 Sep 2017.

Lyles, Jr, Harry. " Richard Sherman stands up for Colin Kaepernick, despite disagreeing with how he protested." SBNation.com. 6 Sep 2017.

Drovetto, Tony. " Friday Round-Up: Seahawks Cornerback Richard Sherman Visits Local Hospital." Seahawks.com. 13 Oct 2017.

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Seahawks Players Didn't Burn Flag - FactCheck.org

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A: No. A widely circulated picture was altered to make it look that way. Seattle Seahawks - Did they burn the American flag? False stories claiming that Seattle Seahawks players burned the American flag surfaced online after President Donald Trump called on National Football League team owners to fire players who don't stand during the national anthem before games.

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Have you mastered using online maps to verify newsworthy images?

How can you find out where those Russian bombs are falling? Or where those jihadists filmed their propaganda video? Or if that picture is really of a terrorist attack in Turkey?

Geolocation is a vital step in the process of verifying newsworthy images, many of which provide visual clues to identify where they were captured. Take our geolocation challenge to learn some expert techniques and practice navigating street view, searching for landmarks, viewing historical imagery and measuring distances.

We've used Google Maps here but it's worth getting to grips with other mapping services and sources of location imagery too. The Russian Yandex Maps includes street view images in parts of the world Google does not, like Belarus and Kazakhstan, and Baidu Maps has a street view option for some Chinese cities.

Ready? You'll need to open a few extra tabs in your web browser so we recommend using desktop rather than mobile for this challenge.

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Test your verification skills with our Geolocation Challenge - First Draft News

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Have you mastered using online maps to verify newsworthy images? How can you find out where those Russian bombs are falling? Or where those jihadists filmed their propaganda video? Or if that picture is really of a terrorist attack in Turkey?

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This video walks you through how to pick up visual clues from an image or video that you can then cross-reference with maps, satellite imagery and other databases. Music: "I dunno" by Grapes (CC by 3.0) http://ccmixter.org/people/grapes https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ -- First Draft News: Getting it right from the source.

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The Associated Press delivers in-depth coverage on today's Big Story including top stories, international, politics, lifestyle, business, entertainment, and more.

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Checking the truth behind the political rhetoric.

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Common Sense Media's Reverse Image Search Handout

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Common Sense Media's Fearless Fact Finding Handout

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Kevin Allocca is YouTube's Head of Culture & Trends, and he has deep thoughts about silly web video. In this talk from TEDYouth, he shares the 4 reasons a video goes viral.

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Eli Pariser: Beware online "filter bubbles"

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As web companies strive to tailor their services (including news and search results) to our personal tastes, there's a dangerous unintended consequence: We get trapped in a "filter bubble" and don't get exposed to information that could challenge or broaden our worldview.

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Jennifer Golbeck: Your social media "likes" expose more than you think

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Do you like curly fries? Have you Liked them on Facebook? Watch this talk to find out the surprising things Facebook (and others) can guess about you from your random Likes and Shares.

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Alexis Ohanian: How to make a splash in social media

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In a funny, rapid-fire 4 minutes, Alexis Ohanian of Reddit tells the real-life fable of one humpback whale's rise to web stardom. The lesson of Mister Splashy Pants is a shoo-in classic for meme-makers and marketers in the Facebook age.

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The definitive Internet reference source for researching urban legends, folklore, myths, rumors, and misinformation.

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Fact-checking journalism is the heart of PolitiFact. Our core principles are independence, transparency, fairness, thorough reporting and clear writing. The reason we publish is to give citizens the information they need to govern themselves in a democracy.

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PolitiFact is a fact-checking website that rates the accuracy of claims by elected officials and others on its Truth-O-Meter.

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Anne Tyler? Lee Smith? C. S. Lewis? George R. R. Martin? Louis L'Amour? Apocryphal?

Question for Quote Investigator: A prominent author disclosed a fascinating insight into her prime motivation for writing novels. She desired to live more than one life. Would you please help me to identify this author and find a citation?

I write because I want more than one life; I insist on a wider selection. It's greed, plain and simple. When my characters join the circus, I'm joining the circus. Although I am happily married, I spend a great deal of time mentally living with incompatible husbands.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Continue reading "Quote Origin: I Write Because I Want More Than One Life"

Elon Musk? Ruly Carpenter? Stanley Kroll? Leo Fuld? Alan Young? Phil Silvers? Joey Adams? Anonymous?

Question for Quote Investigator: A family of jokes emphasizes the unforgiving economics of risky or expensive activities. Here are four examples:

(1) How do you make a small fortune in social media? Start out with a large one.

(2) The surest way to make a small fortune in the commodity market is to start with a large one.

(3) To leave a casino with a small fortune you should arrive with a big one.

(4) You can end up with a small fortune in the winery business provided you start out with a large fortune.

Would you please explore this topic?

Reply from Quote Investigator: The first example above occurred in an x-twitter message from Elon Musk dated November 17, 2022.

TODAY'S BEST LAUGH: Leo Fuld, the Dutch singer who's become a big hit in England, asks: "Know how to go to England on a visit and leave with a small fortune? ... Go there with a large fortune."

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Continue reading "Quote Origin: How Do You Make a Small Fortune in a Risky Domain? Start With a Large Fortune"

Arthur Ashe? Apocryphal?

Question for Quote Investigator: A famous tennis player once discussed the topic of valor. He stated that heroism was not based on a desire to surpass others, but on a desire to serve others. A statement like this has been attributed to Arthur Ashe. Would you please help me to find a citation?

"True heroism is remarkably sober, very undramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost," Arthur Ashe told the Ohio Wesleyan University class of 1991 in his commencement address.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Continue reading "Quote Origin: True Heroism is Not the Urge To Surpass All Others At Whatever Cost, But the Urge To Serve Others At Whatever Cost"

Hubert Mewhinney? Sam Kinch? ‎Stuart Long? Adam J. Schiffer? Jack Z. Smith? Rick Sanchez? Anonymous?

Question for Quote Investigator: Journalists are taught to value fairness and objectivity. If there are two sides to an issue then fairness demands that both sides should be presented in an article. Yet, sometimes only one side makes sense. The other side is deceptive or delusional. Unfortunately, a timid journalist may be reluctant to express a strong stance.

The proper attitude of a good journalist can be summarized with a parable. If one person says it is raining and another person says it is not raining then a journalist should not simply quote them both. Instead, a journalist should look outside to ascertain the truth and relay it to the public.

Would you please explore the origin of this parable?

It was designed as a criticism of the then current attitude of Texas newspapers-that you quote what the man says, and that's all.

"If Jimmy Allred says it's raining, and W. Lee O'Daniel says it isn't raining." Mewhinney wrote. "Texas newspapermen quote them both, and don't look out the window to see which is lying, and to tell the readers what the truth is at the moment."

Mewhinney's tale clearly suggested that a good journalist should look out the window and report the truth. QI has not yet been able to search an archive of the "Texas Spectator" in the 1940s. So QI has not verified the presence of text above in a specific newspaper issue.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Continue reading "Quote Origin: If One Person Says It's Raining and Another Says It's Not Raining Then the Journalist Should Look Out the Window and Report the Truth"

Joey Adams? Yip Harburg? Evan Esar? Judge Magazine? Anonymous?

Question for Quote Investigator: A loving kiss is wonderful, but it should be with the right person. A deceptive kiss is perilous.

A family of quips about the dangers of osculation uses a rhetorical device called antimetabole. Words in the first half of a statement are reordered in the second half. Here are two instances:

(1) Never let a fool kiss you, and never let a kiss fool you.
(2) She let that fool kiss her; even worse she let that kiss fool her.

This joke has been attributed to U.S. comedian Joey Adams and U.S. lyricist Yip Harburg. I have not found a solid citation. Would you please explore this topic?

Reply from Quote Investigator: The earliest match located by QI appeared in the New York humor magazine "Judge" in September 1927 without attribution. Boldface added to excepts by QI:1

Advice to Damsels- Never let a fool kiss you and never let a kiss fool you.

Thus, an editor at "Judge" crafted this joke or heard this joke from an unnamed contributor.

During the ensuing decades other humorists have employed this jest. For example, Joey Adams included the quip in a 1961 compilation, and Yip Harburg placed the joke into a 1965 compilation.

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Vincent van Gogh? Joni Mitchell? Justin Lee Collins? Nellie Hermann? Apocryphal?

Question for Quote Investigator: A personal website enables an artist to achieve inexpensive worldwide distribution of a large digital portfolio. Yet, the greatest challenge for an artist today is convincing others to pay attention to their artworks.

In the late nineteenth century an artist who later became famous experienced this same problem of bleak obscurity. The artist lamented that there was a great fire in his soul, but others were unaware. No one chose to warm themselves at this fire. This notion has been attributed to the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh. Would you please help me to find a citation?

Do our inner thoughts ever show outwardly? There may be a great fire in our soul, yet no one ever comes to warm himself at it, and the passers-by see only a wisp of smoke coming through the chimney, and go along their way.

Look here, now, what must be done? Must one tend that inner fire, have salt in oneself, wait patiently yet with how much impatience for the hour when somebody will come and sit down near it-maybe to stay? Let him who believes in God wait for the hour that will come sooner or later.

The mention of salt corresponds to the biblical verse Mark 9:50. In this case, it means energizing oneself and persevering.

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Continue reading "Quote Origin: There May Be a Great Fire In Our Soul, Yet No One Ever Comes To Warm Themselves At It. Passers-By See Only a Wisp of Smoke from a Chimney"

Mignon McLaughlin? Derric Johnson? Anonymous?

Question for Quote Investigator: A clever author once compared the unfulfilled potential of a human to a three-way light fixture which contains a one-way light bulb that never shines with its maximum luminance. Would you please help me to determine the name of the author who crafted this simile?

Hope is the feeling we have that the feeling we have is not permanent.
We are all such a waste of our potential, like three-way lamps using one-way bulbs.
The know-nothings are, unfortunately, seldom the do-nothings.

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Matthew Yglesias? William Deresiewicz? Apocryphal?
Question for Quote Investigator: Predicting the technological future is extremely difficult. In 2007 Amazon corporation introduced the Kindle ebook reader, and ebooks grew rapidly in popularity during the following years. Commentators envisioned dramatic upheavals in the book world.

One influential pundit projected that publishers were going to be wiped out. This imminent development was depicted favorably. Would you please help me to find a citation?

This brings months of sniping to an end, but the structural conflict between publishers and the retail giant isn't going away. And here's a little real talk about the book publishing industry - it adds almost no value, it is going to be wiped off the face of the earth soon, and writers and readers will be better off for it.

The fundamental uselessness of book publishers is why I thought it was dumb of the Department of Justice to even bother prosecuting them for their flagrantly illegal cartel behavior a couple of years back ...

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Albert Schweitzer? Jim Valvano? Erica Anderson? C. T. Campion? Apocryphal?

Question for Quote Investigator: Maintaining a high level of enthusiasm and motivation is difficult. Sometimes our inner fire starts to sputter. Happily, this fire can be reignited by an experience with another person. We owe that person our deep thanks.

Apparently, Alsatian physician and humanitarian Albert Schweitzer said something like this, but I have been unable to find a citation. Would you please help?

As a rule there are in everyone all sorts of good ideas, ready like tinder. But much of this tinder catches fire, or catches it successfully, only when it meets some flame or spark from outside, i.e. from some other person. Often, too, our own light goes out, and is rekindled by some experience we go through with a fellow-man. Thus we have each of us cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flames within us.

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Continue reading "Quote Origin: Sometimes Our Inner Fire Goes Out. Another Person Rekindles It and Deserves Our Deepest Gratitude"

Victor Hugo? Émile Souvestre? Gustave Aimard? Frederic C. Howe? Ralph Waldo Trine? Benjamin Disraeli? Anonymous?

Question for Quote Investigator: An idea can transform a culture and catalyze historical changes. Here are three expressions from a family of pertinent sayings:

(1) Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.
(2) Nothing can stand against the idea whose time has come.
(3) No army can withstand the strength of an idea whose time has come.

Sayings of this type have been attributed to the famous French novelist Victor Hugo, but I have been unable to find a solid citation. Would you please explore this topic.

Tout le phénomène actuel est dans ces quelques mots. On résiste à l'invasion des armées; on ne résiste pas à l'invasion des idées.

Here is one possible translation:

The whole current phenomenon is summed up in these few words. An invasion of armies can be resisted; an invasion of ideas cannot be resisted.

Or, dans toute question humaine, il y a quelque chose de plus puissant que la force, que le courage, que le génie même: c'est l'idée dont le temps est venu.

Here is one possible translation:

Now, in every human question, there is something more powerful than strength, than courage, than genius itself: it is the idea whose time has come.

Souvestre was writing about the Chouannerie, a complex uprising in France. Souvestre believed that the forces he favored would ultimately prevail.

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Anne Tyler? Lee Smith? C. S. Lewis? George R. R. Martin? Louis L'Amour? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A prominent author disclosed a fascinating insight into her prime motivation for writing novels. She desired to live more than one life. Would you please help me to identify this author and find a citation?