Has Thomas Piketty Really Never Gotten Around to Reading Marx?

The best-selling author whose “Capital in the Twenty-First Century” has been shaking up the world says Karl Marx did not influence his research, but his statement may be tongue in cheek; the true Crimean referendum results were accidentally revealed, showing only 15 percent of voters backed annexation; meanwhile, the mayor of Seattle has proposed a plan to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. These discoveries and more below.

On a regular basis, Truthdig brings you the news items and odds and ends that have 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.

Thomas Piketty Is Pulling Your Leg In his interview with Isaac Chotiner, Piketty was putting on his American readers when he disclaims any interest in Marx’s ideas.

“Marx? I Never Really Managed to Read It” – An Interview with Thomas Piketty When one sets out to interview the author of a 700-page book on economics (being published by a university press), it is generally smooth sailing.

Symantec Executive Says Antivirus Is Dead For consumers, antivirus has seemed like the same boring thing since the late ’80s.

The U.S. Military Was No Match for Afghanistan’s Corruption The Pentagon wasn’t just defeated by the country’s graft—the Pentagon made it worse.

Thomas Piketty and His Critics In the 1790s, Frederick Eden, concerned about the economy and the realities of the poor, went into the British countryside and began to collect data on household budgets for poor agricultural laborers.

Imagining the Post-Antibiotics Future After 85 years, antibiotics are growing impotent. So what will medicine, agriculture and everyday life look like if we lose these drugs entirely?

When Fat is Healthier than Skinny: The Obesity Paradox Similar to how the famous French paradox points to an inverse relationship between the incidence of coronary heart disease and the consumption of saturated fats, the so-called “obesity paradox” points to an inverse relationship between body fat and risk of death in many cases.

Putin’s ‘Human Rights Council’ Accidentally Posts Real Crimean Election Results The website of the “President of Russia’s Council on Civil Society and Human Rights” posted a blog that was quickly taken down as if it were toxic radioactive waste.

No Risk, No Reward: Seattle Should Approve a $15 Minimum Wage Last week, Seattle Mayor Ed Murray announced a plan to raise the city’s minimum wage to $15 an hour.

Career Services Must Die Well, not die, exactly. Transform.

Bolivia’s Decade of Steady Growth Under Pres. Evo Morales The World Bank’s latest report shows that Bolivia’s economy grew around 6.5% last year, making more than other nations like Peru or Uruguay.

Piketty Answers David Brooks: The Best-Selling Economist Sounds Off to Salon “The entrepreneur inevitably tends to become a rentier, more and more dominant over those who own nothing but their labor,” economist Thomas Piketty writes in his explosive and unexpected best-seller “Capital in the Twenty-First Century.”

Why Some Doctors Like Google Glass So Much The way some emergency doctors are using Glass highlights the promise, and the limitations, of wearable technology.

Emancipate the Black College Athlete History was made on April 25 as the scholarship athletes of the Northwestern University football team, led by the former quarterback Kain Colter, cast their votes on whether or not to unionize after a regional director of the National Labor Relations Board ruled that they could be considered employees.

The Paradox of Public Intellectuals Could a social function for intellectuals—that is to say, could intellectuals—have existed before the invention of writing?