Lies Our Teachers Are Telling Us

What rights do you have on an airplane, the political honesty of one’s own eyes, and Virginia’s school textbooks are chock full of lies. These gems and more after the jump.

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.

The links below open in a new window. Newer ones are on top.

What Rights Do Delayed Airline Passengers Have? The holidays haven’t been very happy for the thousands of travelers stranded in airports in the northeastern U.S. and Europe. With delays stretching into days, passengers reasonably start to wonder whether there’s anything they can do about it.

Political Leanings Revealed by the Eyes It may be time to take the phrase “political viewpoint” literally. A new study suggests that liberals are more likely than conservatives to follow other people’s eye movements.

Virginia Textbooks Rife With Errors Back in October, the Virginia fourth-grade textbook “Our Virginia: Past and Present” was caught turning Internet inaccuracies about black Confederate soldiers into schoolroom fact. Now, unsurprisingly, more bloopers have emerged from the apocrypha stew, reports The Washington Post.

Death knell for ‘death panel’ debate? The debate over “death panels” is hard to kill—but at least one Senate Democratic aide says the issue has now become “Kryptonite for the Right,” thanks to the way a new Medicare regulation is written.

Taboo transplant: How new poo defeats superbugs Even doctors recoil from faecal transplants — but you might get over such squeamishness if it was your only hope of beating a killer infection.

Pepsi Launches Viscous “Snack” Drinks Facing stiff competition from Coke and Dr Pepper in the cola department, PepsiCo is turning to a niche market: snack drinks. “The company is hoping people will pay a premium for a new pureed fruit product that it considers thick enough to be a snack rather than a beverage,” reports The Wall Street Journal.

The worsening journalistic disgrace at Wired For more than six months, Wired’s Senior Editor Kevin Poulsen has possessed — but refuses to publish — the key evidence in one of the year’s most significant political stories: the arrest of U.S. Army Pvt. Bradley Manning for allegedly acting as WikiLeaks’ source.

The Internet Problem: when an abundance of choice becomes an issue Self publishing a book provides a wealth of opportunity, but decisions are harder when there are no constraints

Political Contributions Rise During Key Votes Throughout the year, lawmakers have received cash from donors right around the time they’re writing or voting on new laws. Such moves are discouraged since ethics watchdogs say that even if there’s nothing necessarily illegal about the practice it can raise questions about the motivations to approve or reject certain measures.