In Search of Women

Most Wikipedia contributors are men, but that doesn’t justify the fact that females are so poorly represented on the site; much to many priests’ chagrin, the Roman Catholic Church unwittingly bought part of a building that houses Europe’s largest gay sauna; meanwhile, ZIP codes serve as more than just locating devices as they have come to define identities and divide communities. 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.

Prikipedia? Or, Looking for the Women on Wikipedia To celebrate women’s history month, Claire Potter has decided to tweet an historical fact about a woman, or women, every day in March.

What Do You Do With the World’s Fastest Internet Service? Farhad Manjoo visited Google’s pilot program in Kansas City, Kan., to find out.

Why was Francis Underwood a Democrat? If you have Netflix and are even vaguely interested in American politics, it is a good bet your nightmares already are, or soon will be, haunted by Francis Underwood.

Cultural Anthropology shifts to Open Access The American Anthropological Association announced on Monday that it will be converting the journal Cultural Anthropology to an open-access format, accessible free of charge to anyone, as of January 2014. In addition to current material, the new format will also provide a 10-year backlog. Cultural Anthropology is the journal of the Society for Cultural Anthropology, a section of the AAA.

Authentication System Would Use the Body to Secure Guns and Gadgets Simpler authentication systems could help keep guns and power tools safe.

Curia Priests Share Building with Huge Gay Sauna A day ahead of the papal conclave, faces at the scandal-struck Vatican were even redder than usual after it emerged that the Holy See had purchased a €23 million (£21 million) share of a Rome apartment block that houses Europe’s biggest gay sauna.

If College Leads to Jobs, Why Are So Many Young College Grads Unemployed? It’s easy to debate the value of college, but it’s impossible to doubt the clear difference between the unemployment rates of those with a college degree and those without a college degree. Just 4 percent of America’s bachelor’s holders (in blue in the graph below) are unemployed today.

How Right-Wing Christian Money Brought Us the Regnerus Study There is a new release of documents, obtained by the American Independent through a Texas Freedom of Information Act request, regarding Mark Regnerus, a sociologist at the University of Texas-Austin (UT).

The Invention of Jaywalking It happened again the other night. This time, the driver of a Jaguar traveling down 42nd Street in Manhattan struck another car and lost control, flipping onto the sidewalk and striking several pedestrians.

Three Democratic Myths Used to Demean the Paul Filibuster The progressive ’empathy gap’, a strain of liberal authoritarianism, and a distortion of Holder’s letter are invoked to defend Obama.

Mail Online is Like ‘Journalism Crack’ Says Editor Martin Clarke, publisher of Mail Online, has described the Daily Mail’s all-conquering website as the “crack cocaine” of journalism.

War On Entitlements Thomas Edsall’s essay, “The War On Entitlements,” should be required reading for everyone interested in challenging the elite view that has come to govern the present debate about programs like Social Security and Medicare.

Being White in Philly Whites, race, class, and the things that never get said.

The End of the Two-State Solution: Why the Window is Closing on Middle-East Peace One Friday evening last November, Mahmoud Abbas made a rare appearance on the popular Israeli TV station, Channel 2.

The Tyranny of the ZIP Code Mr. Zip, a gangly cartoonish figure with wide friendly eyes and a neat blue mail carrier’s uniform, emerged fifty years ago to help the U.S. Postal Service promote its newest idea: five numbers added to our addresses to more clearly designate our locations.