The New York Times has put up their 8th Annual Year in Ideas as part of their Sunday magazine. You can browse A to Z (well, W) and find short pieces on some of the outstanding developments across a breadth of arenas and disciplines. Definitely one of my favorite magazine issues of the year.

Here is one I found on Women in Power Are Set Up To Fail, or the “glass cliff” based on experimental research by Michelle Ryan and Alex Haslam:

83 businesspeople — roughly half of them women — [had] described to them two companies, one that was steadily improving in profitability and an-other that was steadily declining. The subjects were told to pick a new financial director for the firm and were presented with three candidates: a man and a woman who were identical in experience and a lesser-qualified male. The subjects were slightly more likely to pick a man to lead the successful firm but were far more likely to pick the woman to lead the failing one. Two other experiments with similar designs yielded the same result: When presented with men and women to lead a company that’s going down the tubes, people pick the woman.

The same issue also features a fun interview with Jonah Lehrer, who runs The Frontal Cortex blog and has a forthcoming book on How We Decide. Gotta love this quote, “I wrote the book because I would spend 10 minutes in the cereal aisle choosing between Honey Nut Cheerios and Apple Cinnamon Cheerios.”

The 60th version of Encephalon rounds up the best mind/brain blogging over at GrrlScientist. A well-organized version, ranging from parrots to body images, with plenty and plenty of interesting reads. Since this version is also over at GrrlScientist, with her passion for birds, I also have to link to all the great images and info on the spectacular birds of Colombia, including the elusive smiling bird and even one of Grrl’s own parrots.

Comment from Greg: This Encephalon is especially strong on sexual difference in the brain (and sex development in the brain) and delinquency and aggression.

The latest Grand Rounds is now up over at Sharp Brains, and brings us the week’s medical blogging. The sections on training, mental health, and attitudes are all great, with plenty more health-related materials besides.

The latest Four Stone Hearth gathers together anthro blogging over the past fortnight, and is now up at Cognition and Culture. Levi Strauss is celebrated, including this structural structured query/queer piece on gay marriage.

Plus zombie movies, neanderthals, and Japanese toys! So check out Four Stone Fifty Four!

The second edition of the MetaCarnival, a round up of some of the best carnivals out there, is now up at Emergiblog. The MetaCarnival is the brainchild of Alvaro Fernandez of Sharp Brains fame, and Sharp Brains features the archives, calendar and basic info. The basic format is for carnival administrators to submit 1 or 2 picks from their respective carnivals, and those get gathered together in the “carnival of carnivals.”

Emergiblog’s MetaCarnival features stuff from the bran/mind carnival Encephalon and the anthropology carnival Four Stone Hearth, but also goes further afield into classic science papers, academic life, surgery, medicine, and nursing.

The December 29th edition will be hosted at Science Roll. Carnival administrators can send submissions to berci.mesko at gmail dot com.

The latest Encephalon rounds up the best mind and brain blogging over at Ionian Enchantment. Plenty of good material this time, including paranormal beliefs, songbirds, Huntington’s disease, and physical fitness and the brain. Where else can you get all that?!

Grand Rounds 5.9 came out last week over at Dr. Deb. If you’re looking for blogging on medicine and health, Dr. Deb gives us an artful and informative round up. There’s a medical playlist, a mental health playlist, a patient playlist, and even for your aural and literary pleasure.

Moneduloides hosted the latest Four Stone Hearth of anthropology. There you’ll find soils, girating hips, Danes, and figurines… Where else can you get all that?!