interesting things
It’s actually John Oliver, a dry-witted Brit who’s manning the ‘Daily Show’ desk this summer. Kevin Fallon on why it’s okay to like him (even if you miss the old Jon).
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via The Daily Beast – Latest Articles http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/06/10/meet-john-oliver-jon-stewart-s-daily-show-replacement.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thedailybeast%2Farticles+%28The+Daily+Beast+-+Latest+Articles%29
Joe Muto is back with a new book full of more tidbits about the network. He talks to David Freedlander.
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via The Daily Beast – Latest Articles http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/06/10/joe-muto-the-fox-mole-on-his-new-book-an-atheist-in-the-foxhole.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+thedailybeast%2Farticles+%28The+Daily+Beast+-+Latest+Articles%29
Do the newly disclosed U.S. surveillance programs mean the differences between America and China on this issue are shrinking?
via NYT > Most Recent Headlines http://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/10/on-surveillance-is-america-becoming-more-like-china/
A new study suggests that many designated drivers do not themselves refrain from drinking, creating an obvious barrier to the campaign’s effectiveness.
via NYT > Most Recent Headlines http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/10/designated-drivers-often-drink/
reassuring takeaway from the HBO “Vice†episode that includes Dennis Rodman’s visit to North Korea is this: It doesn’t bring the world any closer to nuclear annihilation.
Here’s an interesting tidbit from the newsletter Tax Notes. As we all know by now, the IRS applies extra scrutiny to a group applying for tax-exempt status if it 
suspects the group is political in nature. In 2010, they decided that having “tea party” in a group’s name was sufficient to raise a red flag.
The Inspector General’s report about this included an audit of 298 groups that had been given special scrutiny. Of these, 96 had “tea party,” “patriots,” or “9-12 project” in their names. But that’s all we know. We have no idea how many of the 298 groups were liberal and how many were conservative, because the IRS doesn’t release the name of groups that have applied for tax-exempt status.
However, the IRS does publish the names of groups that have received special scrutiny and been approved for tax-exempt status. They recently released a list of 176 organizations that have been approved since 2010, so Martin Sullivan checked each one to figure out if it was liberal or conservative. Here’s what he found:
This doesn’t tell us anything definitive about the entire set of groups that got special scrutiny. If the whole set is similar to the approved set, then about two-thirds were conservative and one-third liberal—most likely because of the boom in new tea party groups in 2010. But that’s just a guess.
One thing isn’t a guess, however: Two-thirds of the groups who were approved for tax-exempt status were conservative. If the IRS was on a partisan witch hunt against conservative groups, that’s sure an odd way of showing it, isn’t it?
via Kevin Drum Feed | Mother Jones http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2013/06/reports-says-irs-approved-tax-exempt-status-twice-many-conservative-groups-libera
For the first time, a cable show is the top-rated scripted series on television — and we have zombies to thank. AMC’s “The Walking Dead†was not only the highest-rated scripted show among adults ages 18-49 of the 2012-13 season, but the second-highest rated show overall, behind NBC’s “Sunday…
via NY Post: Business http://www.nypost.com/p/news/business/dead_top_show_in_cable_first_aPQGl2g0BehuC3IH1HvguN?utm_medium=rss&utm_content=Business
Film stars are no longer the reader magnets they once were, so magazines are turning to TV actors, reality stars and musicians.
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via NYT > Television http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/06/business/media/on-newsstands-allure-of-the-film-actress-fades.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
It’s now less than a month before Google Reader shuts down, meaning that anyone who relies on the service better be testing the alternatives right about now. Feedly, which has emerged as one of the top contenders, made the choice a little easier Monday when it announced that it’s partnered with a number of other RSS apps — among them the popular iOS app Reeder.
Feedly wrote on its blog:
“We have been working behind the curtains with the developers of Reeder, Press, Nextgen Reader, Newsify and gReader as design partners for our Normandy project. Today we are excited to announce that you will be able to access your feedly from all these apps before Google Reader retires and that the access to feedly API will be free. More details soon.â€
(The Normandy project, by the way, is how Feedly makes its API available to developers. The API is free and Feedly said it’s rolling out access gradually; developers can request access here.)
If you’re already using one of the above services, expect integration in the next couple of weeks: Newsify noted on its blog that users should “look for an update before the end of June to start using the Feedly service,†while Press said its “plan is to provide an app update in a couple weeks that will allow you to easily add your Feedly account and have the same RSS experience you’ve always enjoyed using Press.â€
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via paidContent http://paidcontent.org/2013/06/04/feedly-partners-with-rss-apps-like-reeder-as-google-readers-end-draws-near/
At the PsySociety blog, Melanie Tannenbaum looks at the meta-analysis cited by Erik Erikson of Redstate.com as proof that low-income families fare worse when mom works outside the home — and finds that it says exactly the opposite. This post is notable not only for deconstructing a “common sense” belief, but also for doing a great job of explaining what a meta-analysis is and why it matters. Also provides a full daily serving of Fox News schadenfreude. 
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via Boing Boing http://boingboing.net/2013/06/04/actually-its-good-for-low-i.html