Interesting Tidbits for December 23rd through December 27th

Things worth reading for December 23rd through December 27th:

JWT: 100 Things to Watch in 2011 – Terrific deck.  Well worth the time.

Jon Stewart’s Advocacy Role in 9/11 Bill Passage – NYTimes.com – “Did the bill pledging federal funds for the health care of 9/11 responders become law in the waning hours of the 111th Congress only because a comedian took it up as a personal cause?

“And does that make that comedian, Jon Stewart — despite all his protestations that what he does has nothing to do with journalism — the modern-day equivalent of Edward R. Murrow?”

The Decline Effect and the Scientific Method : The New Yorker – Important piece by Lehrer (subscription required): “If replication is what separates the rigor of science from the squishiness of pseudoscience, where do we put all these rigorously validated findings that can no longer be proved? Which results should we believe? Francis Bacon, the early-modern philosopher and pioneer of the scientific method, once declared that experiments were essential, because they allowed us to “put nature to the question.” But it appears that nature often gives us different answers.”

Groupon, Google, and value on the Internet : The New Yorker – Nice piece by Surowiecki on Groupon (subscription required): “even if Groupon doesn’t end up changing the way we shop, there’s still a good chance that it will make a lot of money—maybe even more than some of its revolutionary brethren. When we think about the Internet, we often think of businesses in black-and-white terms: either they’re huge, world-changing hits or they’re flops. But that’s a false dichotomy. These days, the Web is full of good, solid businesses that may not be remaking the world but that are helping give people what they want. If that’s what Groupon ends up being, well, there are worse fates.”

Why KCET never became a major player in the PBS network – latimes.com – KCET, the Sesame Street station of my youth, is cutting ties with PBS! Oh the horror! Read this to find out about the underlying sturm und drang.

Doctoral degrees: The disposable academic – Quietly terrifying article about the rampant overproduction of PhDs in the US and around the world compared to the lack of jobs for the highly educated and the difficulties in finding work when your academic speciality is super narrow. If you have a youngster or young friend considering a doctorate, this is a must read.

Sheryl Sandberg: Why we have too few women leaders | Video on TED.com – Terrific talk… and if you’re raising a daughter an important one.

ANA Task Force Out to Prove Procurement’s No Villain – From November 2010– good article on a risingly important issue.

Why Blogs (Still) Aren’t Dead…No Matter What You’ve Heard — Regator Blog – “Let’s start by looking at the full report at the original source—always a good place to start when the waters are murky. The Mashable article’s (current) headline states: “Everyone Uses E-mail, But Blogging Is On the Decline.” According the study Schroeder based the post on, this is false. As the handy-dandy chart below (from the same Pew study) shows, blogging is on the decline in Millennials (18-33) and G.I. Generation (74+) but on the increase in all other age groups with an overall increase from 11 percent of internet users in December 2008 to 14 percent in May 2010. In general, blogging is on the rise. One more time for those who are still freaking out: Blogging is not in decline. Put away your shovels and call off the funeral.”