Fact or Fiction? 15 Non-Partisan sites you can trust

 Those  of you who have followed this site have seen the large post I  did many years ago for teachers and students about Fake News. Today's post is for everyone, since our political climate is currently so filled with misinformation. We all need to have factual information. Please share with your friends on social media. Too many people believe everything they read or see on TV. I've also attached an infographic from the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, which you can print and post near your workspace. 

UPDATED 2/27/25

AP Fact Check- Associated Press' website, an independent global news organization dedicated to factual reporting, founded in 1846.

Fact Check- A project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center

Fact Tank: News in the Numbers- "Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research."

MediaBias/Fact Check- comprehensive media bias resource; currently 3200+ media sources listed in the database and growing every day.

Media Matters for America- "A web-based, non profit research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting misinformation in the U.S. media."

Open Secrets- run by the Center for Responsible Politics; non-profit, non-partisan.  Also lists where candidates get their money. Dark money is explained in detail.

NPR- National Public Radio; non-profit media organization

PolitiFact- non-profit run by the Poynter Institute

Poligraph- from Voice of America; includes fact-check videos

PunditFact- "a project of the Poynter Institute, dedicated to checking the accuracy of claims by pundits, columnists, bloggers, political analysts, the hosts and guests of talk shows, and other members of the media."

SciCheck- Fact Check's site "focuses exclusively on false and misleading scientific claims that are made by partisans to influence public policy. It was launched in January 2015."

Snopes- one of the largest collections online

Sunlight Foundation- "a national, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that uses civic technologies, open data, policy analysis and journalism to make our government and politics more accountable and transparent to all."

TinEye- this is a reverse image search which tells you whether or not an image was altered.

The Washington Post Fact Checker- "the truth behind the rhetoric"

Here is the English version. (Right-click on the image to download.)

The infographic is also available in 45 other languages!! CLICK HERE to see the list.

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I am back! Please spread the word!

 

No, I haven't been sitting on the beach this whole time. The photo you see was taken a long time ago, before everything started happening. I'm speaking about my health, and my inability to keep up the blog due to all my medical appointments. I have fought my way back, and after all that has happened in our divided country, I am returning to the blog so you have a place to obtain the information you need and deserve. My return post after this deals with fact-checking sites which are non-partisan.

Hacks, Phishes and Security: Part Two- Beware of Texts and Emails: How to tell they are not real

 

Phishing. Certainly not the same as fishing, but the hacker is certainly "fishing" for information from you. Hence, phishing is "a type of social engineering where an attacker sends a fraudulent message designed to trick a person into revealing sensitive information to the attacker or to deploy malicious software on the victim's infrastructure like ransomware."-Wikipedia

We have all recently received emails and texts claiming that an account will be deactivated due to some circumstance or another. I'm going to show you how to instantly know that the sender is a fraud.

TEXTS
I have personally been receiving several of these per week, and it seems that the majority are from those who are trying to impersonate Apple. Here is what one looks like. Notice the highlighted red squares--- the sender's address makes no sense and shows nothing with anything related to Apple. The link they are asking you to click on is a shortened URL with no information telling me it's Apple computer.

Now look at the copyright section at the bottom of the text. Apple Computer is located in Cupertino, California. Hollyhill Industrial Estate is located in Ireland, and although Apple has a location there, they would NEVER send a text or email for verification if there was a problem with you account.

EMAILS
Whenever you receive an email with either a special prize offer or a warning about a problem with your account, click on the sender's email so it opens for you to view the full address. Notice that Kohl's is really not Kohl's based on the ridiculous and non-sensical address shown at the right. The sender also cc'd a jgreller at aol and Sprint did not encrypt the message. I reported the email as spam and blocked the address from future emails.

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Hacks, Phishes and Security: Part One- Facebook and Facebook Messenger

 

Have you been ever been hacked? Received texts or emails which looked fake? Wondered how to know what's real or not? Look no further, I will cover that and many other things connected to security in this series of special posts. Let's begin this first post and talk about...

FACEBOOK  AND FACEBOOK MESSENGER
I'll begin by warning everyone to NEVER USE THE FACEBOOK MESSENGER APP. As per a December 2020 Forbes Magazine article written by Zak Doffman, "Facebook Messenger doesn’t offer end-to-end encryption by default. This isn’t some niche security setting for you to overlook, this is absolutely fundamental to the security and privacy of your information."

I can't tell you the number of times that a Facebook friend has had their account hacked. The reason for this can fall into a few categories: poor password, the person used Messenger, or they used third party apps they connected with through the Facebook app. Here are a few examples:

Any time I personally see a notification that someone messaged me on FB, I immediately check with them to see if they actually sent me something. Nine out of ten times they hadn't.

To protect your Facebook account, it is also important to go over your own personal settings. Many are hidden, and it will take a while to do, but it will be well worth it. You can follow the video below and go step-by-step through the process.

I'll close this first part with how to make a proper password. DO NOT EVER use the same password for more than one of your accounts. You can follow this infographic I created to assist you:

Guest Post: Author Jeff Gottesfeld

All the way in March, the children's book publisher Candlewick Press (full disclosure: that company is publishing my next picture book, TWENTY-ONE STEPS: GUARDING THE TOMB OF THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER in March, 2021, with illustrations by the immensely talented Matt Tavares) brought out a free, downloadable picture book for kids, explaining the Covid-19 crisis to them. I was impressed by how quickly it must have come together, and the good that could be done with a PDF download.

And it got me thinking. 

I have a pretty active Jewish life. Between my synagogue, family, and study, it was a big anchor for me. Then came Covid-19. And I realized that as much as my Jewish life was disrupted, it was worse for children in Jewish homes. So much of Jewish life is communal. The holidays, observances, festivals, events...it's always the more the merrier. The pandemic made the more the merrier the more the super-spreadering, or something. In any case, kids all over the world were stuck at home, including Jewish kids. They couldn't even mask up and go for a walk on their own. I figured it had to feel pretty joyless.

But the thing is, there is plenty of Jewish joy at home. It just has to be made. So I decided to see if I could enlist some talented Jewish friends and create a free, downloadable PDF book of our own. A coloring book, that would be positive and upbeat, whimsical and inspired. I talked to young artist Jonah Cohen, who went to high school with my de facto stepdaughter and is now at Rhode Island School of Design. Would you be interested, Jonah, in joining in a volunteer chesed project?  He said yes. I talked to my old Teaneck NJ junior high school chum Julie Greller, who's my webmaster. Would be you interested, Julie, in joining a volunteer chesed project, and design this book?  Julie said yes. 

Of course, everything takes longer than expected. Jonah had school, I had my writing life, and Julie had her designing life. But longer doesn't mean never. And maybe it is a besherit that just as America and much of the world is mired in this December wave of Covid-19 that's got so many of us on lockdown again, and Hanukkah is starting on Thursday night, that When We Can't Go Out: Jewish Joy at Home is ready.

It's free to download here. Go and enjoy.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg: 18 Articles, Lesson Plans and Videos

ARTICLES
Academy of Achievement: Ruth Bader Ginsburg- biography, profile, gallery, interview

Examining the Impact and Legacy of Ruth Bader Ginsburg- from School Library Journal; 6 books are reviewed for grades 3 and up.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg Biography- from Biography.com

Ruth Bader Ginsburg Facts for Kids- from Kiddle

TIME 100- 1996: Ruth Bader Ginsburg

LESSON PLANS

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Legacy on the Supreme Court- PBS News Hour Extra's lesson for grades 6-12; video with questions provided.

My Hero- celebrating Ruth Bader Ginsburg, includes discussion questions

RBG (film) Classroom Guide- discussion questions, post-viewing activities, supplemental resources, movie reviews.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg- Share My Lesson has many documents to download with reference to the lesson plan.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg Biography Worksheet- biography is followed by questions (grade 5)

Ruth Bader Ginsburg Coloring Pages

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Supreme Court's Feminist Icon- lesson of the day from The New York Times Learning Network; although the grade level is not listed, it looks like grades 8-12.

Women Who Shaped the Supreme Court- lesson for grades 6-12 from NewseumED

VIDEOS

7 Tips to Create Strong Passwords

 

It's always been important to have strong passwords. Too many people choose their birthday, anniversary, name of a pet or easy number pattern. (Yes, there have been those using 1, 2, 3, 4 ! ) Hackers live to crack your accounts, people! A few popular apps include Facebook, Hotmail, (Microsoft is big on their attack radar) Twitter,  and Instagram. The list is endless, so before you are the next to be hacked, here are some suggestions which will provide a strong password. 

1. Do not use the same password for all your accounts.
The reason is obvious, so just don't. Period.

2. Use a mix of upper and lower case letters with numbers and symbols.
You can choose a word you will remember, but really mix things up. For example, the number 1 can be the letter I or i. The $ sign can represent an S or s. Remember, letters in a password are case-sensitive. You get the idea.

3. Do not use spaces.
Spaces are not permitted most of the time.

3. Misspell a word on purpose.
Gr8PuRr$uN = Great person

4. Never use keyboard sequences, such as QWERTY or CVBNM.
Too easy to crack, right?

5. Never enter your password into a public computer.
Hackers will love you if you do that...

6. Don't leave password hints on site accounts.
It's nobody's business but yours!

7. Use two-step authentication.
For example, when logging into your online bank account, have them text you a code to sign in.

G00b lUk, y00$3R
Good Luck, User

Right-click to download the infographic I created from the list above. It is larger than it appears on this post.