Categorizing Women on Wikipedia

When female writers disappeared from the Wikipedia heading “American novelists,” more than a few eyebrows were raised; Pvt. Bradley Manning being revoked as grand marshal of the San Francisco Gay Pride parade proves that the military-industrial complex rules all; meanwhile, another price-fixing scandal reminiscent of Libor is about to explode. 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.

Wikipedia’s Women Problem There is consternation at Wikipedia over the discovery that hundreds of novelists who happen to be female were being systematically removed from the category “American novelists” and assigned to the category “American women novelists.”

Haaay to the Chief: The Military-Industrial Complex Conquers the Homos Last week, it seemed that the San Francisco LGBT Pride Committee was planning this year’s march with an enormous set of ovaries.

Obama: Stay Out of Syria! President Obama set a trap for himself last year, when he said that if Syria were to use chemical weapons in the civil war there it would be a “game changer” that would trigger direct US involvement. Now, it appears, he’s stepped in it.

Gay Athletes Should Come Out of the Closet Already A main reason professional sports (especially male team sports) have remained a bastion of homophobia is that gay players have failed to show leadership by coming out and insisting on acceptance.

Public Opinion Polls Do Not Always Report Public Opinion Sociologist Herbert Gans says the news media should do a better job noting that “polls are answers to questions rather than opinions,” and that not all opinions have the same intensity — or the same impact.

President Obama’s Budget Puts House Democrats in Bind Democrats have used a clear and potent attack against Republicans in recent elections: Don’t vote for them because they’ll cut your Social Security and Medicare.

Pentagon Claims $757 Million Overbilling by Contractor in Afghanistan The Pentagon allowed a private firm providing food and water to U.S. troops in Afghanistan to overbill taxpayers $757 million and awarded the company no-bid contract extensions worth more than $4 billion over three years, according to the Pentagon’s chief internal watchdog and congressional investigators.

How One Man Turned Himself Into a Publicly Owned Company Mike Merrill was thinking of pumping up his workout regimen with mixed-martial-arts classes and boxing lessons.

Artificial Intelligence is Finally Getting Smart With massive amounts of computational power, machines can now recognize objects and translate speech in real time.

Everything Is Rigged: The Biggest Price-Fixing Scandal Ever Conspiracy theorists of the world, believers in the hidden hands of the Rothschilds and the Masons and the Illuminati, we skeptics owe you an apology.