How Wall Street Plans to Profit From Renting Out Homes It Foreclosed

Diabolical bankers are renting foreclosed houses to the very people they took the properties from, and planning a new scheme that may ruin us all over again; it could be argued that Amazon saved books from the fate music has suffered; and a video imagines what would happen if a gay athlete won a gold medal in Sochi, Russia. 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.

Wall Street Slumlords’ Outrageous New Scheme: How They Could Wreck the Economy Again You’d think that investors would run away from a new Wall Street innovation as fast as Congress runs away from a good idea.

Why H is the Most Contentious Letter in the Alphabet While writing my book, Alphabetical, about the history of the letters we use, I discovered that debates about power and class surround every letter – and none more so than the letter H.

What the World Would Look Like If All the Ice Melted If all of the ice in the world melted, sea levels would raise some 216 feet. But what exactly would that look like?

A Greater Israel? Faction Says No to Two-State Solution, Yes to Annexing Palestinian Areas As Secretary of State John F. Kerry resumes talks here Wednesday in the quest to create “two states for two people,” a vocal faction in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is, more openly than ever, opposing the very idea of a Palestinian state — and putting forward its own plans to take, rather than give away, territory.

New F.C.C. Chairman Outlines His Vision Few people who have engaged the maw of regulation that has historically characterized the Federal Communications Commission would be likely to call it the “Optimism Agency.”

It Sure Sounds Like John Boehner Just Said He Opposes All Anti-Discrimination Laws The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) will likely pass the Senate after it won a procedural vote Monday.

One Man, 1.7 Million Square Meters The slogan of the New Century Global Center, the recently completed largest building in the world by floor space, sounds at first like a Chinglish-y misfire: “The One of Everything.”

Can Automated Editorial Tools Help Wikipedia’s Declining Volunteer Workforce? An algorithm that assesses the quality of Wikipedia articles could reassure visitors and help focus editors on entries that need improving, say the computer scientists who developed it.

What if a Gay Athlete Won Gold in Sochi? International LGBT rights group All Out released an emotional video yesterday that imagines what it might be like for an LGBT Olympian to win an Olympic medal in Sochi, Russia.

Is Amazon Good For Books? There’s an argument that Amazon has saved the publishing industry from going the way of the record labels — that it’s made buying e-books so easy that the number of free pirated versions out there is still tiny.

Academe, Claim Your Political Power More than 40 years ago, Lewis B. Mayhew, of Stanford University, an early leader in higher-education research and criticism, took note of “romantic rhetoric and apocalyptical agonizing over the fragility of the university and its mortal danger.”