This week it’s eclectic – my favs, then some great pieces on the art of blogging. Next health, the brain, animals, and finally anthropology.

Top of the List

John Tierney, Tips From the Potlatch, Where Giving Knows No Slump
The Kwakwaka’wakw Indians and the importance of gift giving for our economy

Cultural Anthropology – Academic Careers Wiki
If you are searching for an academic job in sociocultural anthropology, check this out!!! Wiki updates on the status of job searches from the people most affected, the job seekers. Help shed the light and share the word!

Laurie Edwards, It’s Always the Season for Books, Part 2
A holiday list that has some great reads

Wray Herbert, The Lure of Tomorrow
Why we procrastinate – we make things seem psychologically distant. But doesn’t this mean we focus on the all-important now? (Yes, yes, I procrastinate…)

Pamthropologist, Prehistory World Sim: The Ice Age Endeth
The Prehistoric Life Toob and World Simulation Exercises!

Lance Gravlee, Working with MAXQDA – Episode 1
Lance explains how to work with the qualitative data analysis software MAXQDA. Includes video! Follow up with episodes two and three.

Blogging

Andrew Walker & Nicholas Farrelly, Academic Blogging Opens Up New World
The two professors behind the Southeast Asia blog New Mandala outline the benefits of blogging for academics

Paul Glazowski, Writer’s Toolbox: 35 Best Tools for Writing Online
A round up of writing resources, from word processing to blogging, jotting ideas, and more. Covers a lot of the basic sites.

Leo Babauta, Anatomy of a Post: How to Get Blog Readers to Pay Attention
Some sound advice on how to structure a post to get your point across while keeping the surfing reader engaged

Marcelino 2.0, Top Ten Blogs for Writers – The 2008/2009 Winners
The best blogs if you want advice, encouragement, criticism and support for your writing

Alexandre Enkerli, Blogging Academe
A late entry – but very worthy. Disparate considers why academics should blog (broken up into nice, digestible chunks, too!), and also includes links on academic blogging

Health

Vaughan Bell, Medical Jargon Alters Our Understanding of Disease
Experimental research shows the power of jargon: “For the recently medicalised conditions, the technical label led people to rate it as more serious, more common and more likely to be a real disease.”

LL Wynn, New Reproductive Technologies in Egypt
The paradoxes of reproductive health in Egypt – from Viagra to abortion

Rachel Mahan, The Evolutionary Origins of Schizophrenia
“The massive human brain enables language—and psychosis”

Daniel MacArthur, Genetics of Gene Expression in African-Americans: Ominous News for Personal Genomics?
Basically it comes down to gene expression being complicated, and not as easily controlled or predicted as the genomics media hype.

Boblecridge, Person sized Medicine vs Molecule sized Medicine
Removing the problem versus treating the whole complex adaptive system

Anne Holden, Columbus’ Sailors Culprit for Syphilis Epidemic
The genetics of syphilis – it wasn’t just tobacco that made it back to Europe.

Brain

Tom Siegfried, The Decider
The lateral habernula meets Neo from the Matrix: free will in peril?

Ars Psychiatrica, Noises in the Attic
Auditory hallucinations, schizophrenia, and psychiatric care

Edie Neurolearning, Right-Brained Learner…Gifted Dyslexic?
“Could any budding Mandlebrot’s today able to be so omnivorous and transdisciplinary in their education?”

Mind Papers: A Bibliography of Philosophy of Mind and the Science of Consciousness
Online bibliography compiled by David Chalmers to satisfy your conscious urgings

Rajamannar Ramasubbu, The Amnesia Gene
“Why some people are more likely to forget traumatic events”

Deric Bownds, Reversal of Fear in the Human Brain
The readjustment of fear – studying how we do it

Animals (thanks to Sue!)

NPR, The Secret Life of Baboons
Dorothy Cheney and Robert Seyfarth and Baboon Metaphysics

Eliza Strickland, Sponge-Wielding Dolphins Teach Their Daughters How to Use Tools
And they don’t even have hands!

Anthropology

RebeccaMD, Notes on the NT Intervention Part 1
Critical reflections on the Australian government’s “intervention” into Aboriginal life in the Northern Territory

Google Zeitgeist 2008
The most popular and fastest rising search terms from countries around the world

Shivani Vora, The Simple Life
Ashrams as vacations

Jeremy Burman, Systematic Disobedience in Milgram’s Studies
Critical moments for disobedience, and the importance of historical studies

The Retriever, Trauma and Meaning
A nice riff off our own piece on PTSD, trauma and meaning