No, Greed Is Not Good. So Why Do We Act Like It Is?

Avarice has become widely accepted in today’s world; violinists prefer new instruments to old, prized ones in a blind test; meanwhile, Glenn Greenwald reveals that information similar to the Cuban Twitter scandal appears throughout the Snowden files. 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.

Greed Is Good: A 300-Year History of a Dangerous Idea Not long ago, the pursuit of commercial self-interest was largely reviled. How did we come to accept it?

In Blind Test, Soloists Like New Violins Over Old In world-class soloists put prized Stradivarius violins and new, cheaper instruments to a blind scientific test to determine which has the better sound.

How to Lean Against Your Biases: A Conversation with Daniel Kahneman It’s not hard to find a reason to recommend Daniel Kahneman’s book, Thinking, Fast and Slow.

The ‘Cuban Twitter’ Scam Is a Drop in the Internet Propaganda Bucket Recently, the Associated Press exposed a secret program run by the U.S. Agency for International Development to create “a Twitter-like Cuban communications network” run through “secret shell companies” in order to create the false appearance of being a privately owned operation.

Columbia University Fired Two Eminent Public Intellectuals. Here’s Why It Matters. The fate of Carole Vance and Kim Hopper should worry everyone who wants academics to play a larger role in public debates.

As Vermont Goes, So Goes the Nation? When most liberals hear the words “third party,” they have nasty flashbacks to Ralph Nader’s spoiler campaign in 2000.