Amazon to Sell Used E-Books

Amazon has procured a patent to sell used e-books, which will drain even more money from the shriveling publishing industry; Megan Thode sued Lehigh University over a C+ and, thankfully, lost; meanwhile in Germany, people who are busy getting ahead in their careers hire ghostwriters to pen their doctorates. 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.

Sorrows and Amazon The most frightening thing about Amazon’s latest move is that it reminds us that it’s all too late. It is already Amazon’s world and we just live in it.

Why Libraries Should Be the Next Great Start-Up Incubators Co-working spaces are often treated today as a novelty, as a thoroughly modern solution to the changing needs of a workforce now more loyal to their laptops than any long-term employers. But the idea is actually as old as the public library.

The Premises And Purposes Of American Exceptionalism That the US is objectively “the greatest country ever to exist” is as irrational as it is destructive, yet it maintains the status of orthodoxy.

What the 1% Heard During Obama’s State of the Union Speech When President Obama speaks, most Americans hear what he wants them to hear: lofty rhetoric and a “progressive” vision.

Ranking Colleges by ‘Desirability’ This weary planet might not need yet another set of college rankings, but new models keep popping up.

The Curious Case of Megan Thode There were two major education stories in the news last week: one was the President’s State-of-the-Union call for a new rankings-and-accreditation program for colleges and universities. The other — which seems almost humorous but which is just as serious — involved a former graduate student suing Lehigh University over a grade.

China’s Army Is Seen as Tied to Hacking Against U.S. A growing body of digital forensic evidence — confirmed by American intelligence officials who say they have tapped into the activity of a unit of cyberwarriors in China’s army — leaves little doubt that an overwhelming percentage of the attacks on American corporations, organizations and government agencies originate in and around a 12-story building on the outskirts of Shanghai.

It’s Not What a Library Stocks, It’s What It Shares The city of San Antonio, Texas, recently announced that the first fully digital public library in the US will open in Bexar County later this year: a library that won’t contain a single book.

Helping Careerists Get Ahead as a Ghostwriter In Germany, higher education titles help people in business circles burnish their credentials and get ahead. But instead of doing the work themselves, many busy careerists are employing ghostwriters to write their doctorates for them instead.