What rights do you have on an airplane, the political honesty of one’s own eyes, and Virginia’s school textbooks are chock full of lies. These gems and more after the jump.
On a regular basis, Truthdig brings you the news items and odds and ends that found their way to Larry Gross, director of the USC Annenberg School for Communication. A specialist in media and culture, art and communication, visual communication and media portrayals of minorities, Gross helped found the field of gay and lesbian studies.
The links below open in a new window. Newer ones are on top.
What Rights Do Delayed Airline Passengers Have?
The holidays haven’t been very happy for the thousands of travelers stranded in airports in the northeastern U.S. and Europe. With delays stretching into days, passengers reasonably start to wonder whether there’s anything they can do about it.
Political Leanings Revealed by the Eyes
It may be time to take the phrase “political viewpoint” literally. A new study suggests that liberals are more likely than conservatives to follow other people’s eye movements.
Virginia Textbooks Rife With Errors
Back in October, the Virginia fourth-grade textbook “Our Virginia: Past and Present” was caught turning Internet inaccuracies about black Confederate soldiers into schoolroom fact. Now, unsurprisingly, more bloopers have emerged from the apocrypha stew, reports The Washington Post.
Death knell for ‘death panel’ debate?
The debate over “death panels” is hard to kill—but at least one Senate Democratic aide says the issue has now become “Kryptonite for the Right,” thanks to the way a new Medicare regulation is written.
Taboo transplant: How new poo defeats superbugs
Even doctors recoil from faecal transplants—but you might get over such squeamishness if it was your only hope of beating a killer infection.
Pepsi Launches Viscous “Snack” Drinks
Facing stiff competition from Coke and Dr Pepper in the cola department, PepsiCo is turning to a niche market: snack drinks. “The company is hoping people will pay a premium for a new pureed fruit product that it considers thick enough to be a snack rather than a beverage,” reports The Wall Street Journal.
The worsening journalistic disgrace at Wired
For more than six months, Wired’s Senior Editor Kevin Poulsen has possessed—but refuses to publish—the key evidence in one of the year’s most significant political stories: the arrest of U.S. Army Pvt. Bradley Manning for allegedly acting as WikiLeaks’ source.
Political Contributions Rise During Key Votes
Throughout the year, lawmakers have received cash from donors right around the time they’re writing or voting on new laws. Such moves are discouraged since ethics watchdogs say that even if there’s nothing necessarily illegal about the practice it can raise questions about the motivations to approve or reject certain measures.
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It’s not only the lies teachers (are often forced to) teach. More important still is the lies that publications like Truthdig fail to take into serious consideration—the current example being: What’s the truth behind the Wired allegations against Bradley Manning that are, or aren’t baseless and extremely damaging? This seems a story of primary importance—to sort out what is going on between Wired and Glen Greenwald, and other publicatioiins like the NYT—and give it prominent clarification. This really worries me—that such things as false accusations could be flying around unchallenged, released broadly to the press, and doing a lot of incriminating when the victim has absolutely no chance to intercede and most of the public is too cowed to stand up for his right to be innocent until PROVEN guilty.
(quote from Greenwald in Salon: “They (Wired) allow Lamo to run around making all kinds of false claims about what transpired between him and Manning even as they sit on the evidence that proves those claims are false. And they refuse to reconcile Lamo’s numerous contradictory statements by showing the public the evidence they have that would resolve them.”)
As a person interested in the subject I find myself choosing to become confused after reading “The Internet Problem: when an abundance of choice becomes an issue”. My confused state seems more prevalent of late.
Self Publishing means confusion?
Self promotion has always seemed pompous to me, especially as it is promoted by some artists and writers, opposed to promoting and selling a product like strawberries. Selling a quality product one believes in is easy, at least for me. I sold the best tasting organic strawberries in my county and was proud of my product and developed a strong customer base, how can one do this as a writer artist without the pomposity?
Maybe it is necessary to be an egotistical pompous ass in the art and writing game? Still, tooting ones own bagpipe will always seem obnoxious to me, so it may be my problem only?
On the web the variety and all so many different choices becomes overwhelming to me Maybe we are really going back in time and talking about survival of the fittest, the most egotistical obnoxious opportunists pushing others aside to grasp the ring, requiring some sort of writer artist jock mental condition.
The web may offer many new opportunities for people to be discovered, it seems to me the web is still in flux.
Marching in Chicago: Resisting Rahm Emanuel’s Neoliberal Savagery
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By gerard, January 1, 2011 at 7:21 pm Link to this comment
It’s not only the lies teachers (are often forced to) teach. More important still is the lies that publications like Truthdig fail to take into serious consideration—the current example being: What’s the truth behind the Wired allegations against Bradley Manning that are, or aren’t baseless and extremely damaging? This seems a story of primary importance—to sort out what is going on between Wired and Glen Greenwald, and other publicatioiins like the NYT—and give it prominent clarification. This really worries me—that such things as false accusations could be flying around unchallenged, released broadly to the press, and doing a lot of incriminating when the victim has absolutely no chance to intercede and most of the public is too cowed to stand up for his right to be innocent until PROVEN guilty.
(quote from Greenwald in Salon: “They (Wired) allow Lamo to run around making all kinds of false claims about what transpired between him and Manning even as they sit on the evidence that proves those claims are false. And they refuse to reconcile Lamo’s numerous contradictory statements by showing the public the evidence they have that would resolve them.”)
Report thisBy Leefeller, January 1, 2011 at 11:27 am Link to this comment
As a person interested in the subject I find myself choosing to become confused after reading “The Internet Problem: when an abundance of choice becomes an issue”. My confused state seems more prevalent of late.
Self Publishing means confusion?
Self promotion has always seemed pompous to me, especially as it is promoted by some artists and writers, opposed to promoting and selling a product like strawberries. Selling a quality product one believes in is easy, at least for me. I sold the best tasting organic strawberries in my county and was proud of my product and developed a strong customer base, how can one do this as a writer artist without the pomposity?
Maybe it is necessary to be an egotistical pompous ass in the art and writing game? Still, tooting ones own bagpipe will always seem obnoxious to me, so it may be my problem only?
On the web the variety and all so many different choices becomes overwhelming to me Maybe we are really going back in time and talking about survival of the fittest, the most egotistical obnoxious opportunists pushing others aside to grasp the ring, requiring some sort of writer artist jock mental condition.
The web may offer many new opportunities for people to be discovered, it seems to me the web is still in flux.
Report thisBy TFT, December 31, 2010 at 6:37 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)
Unfortunate headline, since teachers don’t decide which
text books to use.
Maybe you could correct that?
Perhaps you could use the headline: Text Book
Report thisCompanies Hire Morons To Write Their Books or
something similar.