Curl up with some eggnog and click on to find out why Americans can’t make things (hint: business school), why Michelangelo wasn’t such a loner, after all, and more.

On a regular basis, Truthdig brings you the news items and odds and ends that 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.

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The Future of the Magazine

With ad sales falling, editors are going digital, employing online applications that can increase revenue. But it’s a tough fight against a free Internet.

Letters to Michelangelo Repaint His Loner Image When you picture Michelangelo, does the image in your mind resemble Moses? Ben-Hur? In other words, Charlton Heston?

Why Can’t Americans Make Things? Two Words: Business School One of the themes that came up while I was profiling White House manufacturing czar Ron Bloom earlier this fall was managerial talent.

Redactor Agonistes The annual survey of salaries and attitudes of those who work in publishing made its somberer-than-ever appearance last July in Publishers Weekly.

Calling on Leakers to Help Document Local Misdeeds It was a simple idea: Use the power and elusiveness of the Internet to publish secret documents that someone, somewhere thought should be made public. And dare the government, any government, to shut you down.

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