Employees begin prolonged picketing for the first time against the retail giant; driverless cars will be zipping through our streets in the not-so-distant future; and ant-sized computers that can run the Internet on everything and anything are also underway. 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.

Walmart Workers Launch First-Ever ‘Prolonged Strikes’
Walmart employees are on strike in Miami, Massachusetts and the California Bay Area, kicking off what organizers promise will be the first “prolonged strikes” in the retail giant’s history.

The Fast-Approaching Future of Driverless Cars
Last month, on a freeway from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea, John Markoff sat in the driver’s seat of an Audi A7 while software connected to a video camera on the windshield drove the car at speeds up to 65 miles an hour — making a singular statement about the rapid progress in the development of self-driving cars.

All Data Packets Are Equal—Some More than Others
This fall, Verizon will try to persuade a federal judge to throw out U.S. Federal Communications Commission regulations requiring “net neutrality”—the idea that all content and applications must get similar treatment on wired and wireless networks.

Wanted for the Internet of Things: Ant-Sized Computers
If the Internet is to reach everywhere—from the pills you swallow to the shoes on your feet—then computers will need to get a whole lot smaller.

Fine Print: Low-cost Online Master’s Degree for 10,000 Students at Once
The Georgia Institute of Technology’s plan to offer a low-cost online master’s degree to 10,000 students at once creates what may be a first-of-its-kind template for the evolving role of public universities and corporations.

‘Greed Is Good’: Top 7 Most Piggish Commencement Speeches
It’s that time of year. The sun is shining, the flowers are in bloom and all across America, graduating students are forced to endure that dreaded rite of passage, the commencement speech.

From Iraq A Tragic Reminder To Prosecute The War Criminals
The dust in Iraq rolls down the long roads that are the desert’s fingers.

‘You Are My Sunshine’: How a Maudlin Song Became a Children’s Classic
When tornado sirens rang out in Moore, Okla., teachers at the AgapeLand Learning Center rushed their 15 students into the bathrooms — the safest place in their brick building.