No Such Thing as a Human Blueprint

Genetics has us believe that DNA holds the key to a person’s characteristics, but this may be untrue; the Monsanto Protection Act was vanquished in the Senate; meanwhile, scientists blended faces all over the world to show us what an average woman looks like in any given country. 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.

Why I Am Cancelling My Documentary on Hillary Clinton In late 2012, CNN Films approached Charles Ferguson about directing a documentary.

Newly Declassified Documents Show How the Surveillance State was Born Almost no one noticed when the book was quietly released this summer. It has perhaps the most benumbing title in publishing history.

Let’s Be Honest About Israel’s Nukes The recent agreement between the United States and Russia on Syria’s chemical weapons made clear what should have been obvious long ago: President Obama’s effort to uphold international norms against weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East will entangle the United States in a diplomatic and strategic maze that is about much more than Syria’s chemical arsenal.

How to Build a Faculty Culture of Change Organizations that successfully innovate do so because their core members are willing, even eager, to do things differently.

Entrepreneurship: Part of a Liberal Education Innovation is one of the hottest buzzwords in academe, and colleges and universities promote it in two basic ways.

The CIA’s Most Highly-Trained Spies Weren’t Even Human As a former trainer reveals, the U.S. government deployed nonhuman operatives—ravens, pigeons, even cats—to spy on cold war adversaries.

The People Triumph Over Biotech: Monsanto Protection Act Defeated in Senate Finally, it seems like we have the attention of some of the members of Congress.

The Big Lie of Genetics Exposed: Human DNA Incapable of Storing Complete Blueprint of the Human Form The curse of being a critical thinker is that you can’t turn it off.

Meet the World’s Mrs Averages If you were described as average-looking, you probably wouldn’t see it as a compliment.

Brian Williams’ Iran Propaganda The NBC star tells his viewers that Iranian leaders are ‘suddenly claiming they don’t want nuclear weapons’, even though they’ve been saying it for years.