Hasan Rowhani, Shrewd Negotiator

The new leader of Iran has a history of procuring arms for his country; the new Iranian president has a history of procuring arms for Iran; meanwhile, Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly makes a living from providing viewers with hoards of inaccurate information about the economy. 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.

When Rouhani Met Ollie North Hasan Rouhani, a 37-year-old senior foreign affairs advisor in the Iranian government, and his country’s future president, sat with a delegation of White House officials on the top floor of what was once the Hilton hotel in Tehran.

Visualizing the Most Unisex Names in U.S. History Trendy names come and go, and so too do those androgynous names that work just as well for both girls and boys.

Anatomy of a Public Space: Philadelphia’s 30th St. ‘Porch’ To the untrained eye, The Porch outside of Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station has been an unambiguous success.

The Real Income Data Incomes for those at the top continue to rise (based on profits, dividends, and capital gains) while, for everyone else, the trend continues downward.

Why Bill O’Reilly Shouldn’t Report On The Economy Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly unleashed a slew of deceptive and historically inaccurate economic arguments to prop up the narrative that “taxes in America have reached critical mass” under President Obama, whom O’Reilly claimed has redistributed the nation’s wealth.

No Longer David: The State of Israel As Goliath Whenever you speak with an American Jew about Israel, you always end up at the same point. The conversation starts with Israel, but rarely ends there.

Internet Dating a la Russe This man wants a teen bride to share his gold and fur with.

A Newly Released Secret Opinion Shows Surveillance Courts Are Even Worse Than You Knew With little fanfare, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) released a previously secret opinion upholding the National Security Agency’s mass surveillance of telephone metadata.