A look inside Foxconn gives us a new perspective on workers’ conditions; one solution to the “right to be forgotten” dilemma may be to implement mandatory online insurance; meanwhile, a Columbia grad in New York has been converting pay phone booths into libraries. 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 links below open in a new window. Newer ones are on top.

What Cameras Inside Foxconn Found Last month, The New York Times published a front-page article highlighting working conditions at a factory in China owned by Foxconn Technology, where Apple’s products are built, but there have been some developments, some progress and some new revelations.

Woman Pleads Guilty to Scamming Nigerian Scam Artists Australia’s Courier Mail brings us this rather ironic piece of news to brighten our day: An Australian woman nearly made off with more than $30,000 after pulling her own scam on a bunch of Nigerian scam artists.

Google, Others Agree To Adopt Privacy Button The industry move toward a “do-not-track” setting comes as the government steps up Internet privacy monitoring and protection.

Israel backing down on Iran threats The U.S. president reportedly feels recent threats by Israeli spokesmen are unnecessary warmongering and believes the Iran issue should be handled by superpowers.

How Fox News Recycled GOP Talking Points — With Typos An excerpt from David Brock, Ari Rabin-Havt, and Media Matters’ new book, “The Fox Effect,” published by Random House.

Romance Novels, The Last Great Bastion Of Underground Writing Romance fiction is widely reckoned to be a very low form of literature.

British culture may be our great new industry The power of British culture has replaced the class system, and has stimulated an economy of the mind.

The Information Welfare State The “right to be forgotten” doesn’t go far enough. We need mandatory insurance to protect online reputations.

How Greece Could Take Down Wall Street The Houses of Morgan, Goldman and the other Big Five are justifiably worried right now, because an “event of default” declared on European sovereign debt could jeopardize their $32 trillion derivatives scheme.

Why We Speak Freely on Social Networks Social networking sites give us portals into another person’s (user’s) mind, so far as that person (user) makes public their thoughts, ideas, feelings and desires.

Could the secular world draw useful lessons from religious life? The decline of religion in the West has brought a decline in community spirit.

How New York Pay Phones Became Guerrilla Libraries John Locke thinks people should read more. So in the past few months, the Columbia architecture grad has slipped around Manhattan with a sack of books and custom-made shelves, converting old pay phones into pop-up libraries.

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