Occupy the Nation

Occupy Wall Street is working on convening a national General Assembly; Rick Santorum pledges to repeal federal funding for contraception; meanwhile, Amazon attempts to rid the world of publishers. 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.

Occupy Wall Street Protesters Call for National General Assembly Earlier this week, members of the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement in New York put forth a call to convene a non-partisan National General Assembly in early 2012 and released a draft of demands.

Why big businesses are bad for business Luke Johnson recently gave a talk at a big corporate conference to hundreds of delegates, without exception middle-managers from large companies and realised as he spoke to the audience that his words about entrepreneurship were irrelevant to them – even offensive.

Rick Santorum Pledges To Defund Contraception Rick Santorum pledged to repeal all federal funding for contraception, during a recent interview with CaffeinatedThoughts.com editor Shane Vander Hart, arguing that birth control devalues the act of procreation.

Wi-Fi and the Mobile Meltdown How many themes in our hopper will, on reconsideration, turn out to have a Steve Jobs connection? One more is Wi-Fi, which Cees Links, a former Lucent executive, reminds us was promoted by Steve Jobs, when he demanded cheap wireless networking for the 1999 Apple iBook laptop.

Colleges Take Varied Approaches to iPad Experiments, With Mixed Results Several colleges that have been trying out iPads in the classroom will be sharing their experiences at the annual Educause conference in Philadelphia.

United States needs to reevaluate its assistance to Israel As the country reviews its spending on defense and foreign assistance, it is time to examine the funding the United States provides to Israel.

How a real leftist movement could create a new center in American politics Will the worldwide “occupy” demonstrations make 2011 the new 1968?

K Street suffers from Twitter jitters There are no smoke-filled backrooms in cyberspace — or even a spot for a simple hallway conversation.

“Occupy” Movement Raises $300k The Occupy Wall Street protests are aimed, at least in part, at the corrupting influence of big political donations. But small ones are more than welcome, it seems.

Amazon Signs Up Authors, Writing Publishers Out of Deal Amazon.com has taught readers that they do not need bookstores. Now it is encouraging writers to cast aside their publishers.