Glenn Greenwald Clears Up Questions Regarding NSA Reporting

The journalist puts several “false assumptions” to rest regarding stories based on Edward Snowden’s leaks; Alcoholics Anonymous is highly unsuccessful and overrated; meanwhile, scientists figure out what’s the best diet out there. 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.

The Myth of Gay Affluence Despite a commonly held belief that LGBT Americans tend to live it up in classy urban neighborhoods, they struggle with disproportionately high levels of poverty compared to straight people.

The Pseudo-Science of Alcoholics Anonymous: There’s a Better Way to Treat Addiction AA and rehab culture have shockingly low success rates, and made it impossible to have real debate about addiction.

Man Arrested After Drinking Iced Tea in Public Must Take Deal or Go to Trial A power-tripping beverage cop arrests a man for not letting him examine his canned drink.

How Completely Amazon Is Dominating the eCommerce Business Amazon’s revenue is bigger than that of the next dozen biggest ecommerce companies combined.

Supporting Ukraine Means Opposing Anti-Semitic Nationalism Now, Not Later Three historians argue that the threat of far-right extremists is no less urgent than the military danger from Moscow.

Science Compared Every Diet, and the Winner Is Real Food Researchers asked if one diet could be crowned best in terms of health outcomes. If diet is a set of rigid principles, the answer is a decisive no. In terms of broader guidelines, it’s a decisive yes.

You’re Not As Busy As You Say You Are Also, by talking about it so much, you’re wasting time.

Some Facts About How NSA Stories Are Reported Several members of the august “US Journalists Against Transparency” club are outraged by revelations in the New York Times (jointly published by der Spiegel) that the NSA has been hacking the products of the Chinese tech company Huawei as well as Huawei itself at exactly the same time (and in exactly the same way) as the US Government has been claiming the Chinese government hacks.