This week it’s back to normal – some favorites, then brain and anthropology, rounded out with sports.

Top of the List

Pink Tentacle, Edo-Period Kappa Sketches
The Japanese creature of legend seen in fantastical illustrations

BrainHood Project – Neurocultures
The intersection of neuroscience and artistic production – a collaborative endeavor

Doomsday Lab, The Enteric Nervous System, Our Gastrointestinal Overlord
One billion neurons at work! Brings new light to the old adage, The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach

Sean Mallin, If Bailed-Out Bankers Were Treated Like Welfare Recipients…
One of the funniest and most apt cartoons I’ve seen about the financial crisis

Brain

Pam Beluck, In New Procedure, Artificial Arm Listens to Brain
It’s all about connections, connections, connections

Becoming Human: Brain, Mind and Emergence
Videos from the Stanford conference with some heavy hitters

PhysOrg, Readers Build Vivid Mental Simulations of Narrative Situations, Brain Scans Suggest
Lots of other fields have already told us this – but it’s nice to see those brain areas light up anyway

Chris Chatham, Towards a Post-Newtonian Era in Psychology: SIMPLE
An algorithm for memory that takes on some interesting considerations of time scale, discrimination, and retrieval

Jonah Lehrer, In Your Brain, A Tug of War with Every Purchase
Jonah brings us a slice of the insights from his latest book, How We Decide

Dave Munger, Exposure to the Natural Environment Can Make Us Better at Menial Tasks
Our modern life needs better screen savers

Neurophilosophy, Single Neurons have RAM-like Activity
Glutamate, short-term storage, and some excellent research – quite a read (if you can remember it)

PhysOrg, New Study May Revolutionize Language Learning
Exposure matters – your brain still processes the sound even if you don’t understand, and that makes a long-term difference

The Brain from Top to Bottom, The Evolutionary Layers of the Human Brain
Good graphics and description on mammalian brain evolution. The site has a bunch of other tutorials

Andy Clark & David Chalmers, The Extended Mind
Their essay online – the mind doesn’t stop where the world begins…

Neuroculture
The Wikipedia entry.

G. Thomas Couser, The Cases of Oliver Sacks: The Ethics of Neuroanthropology
Is it moral, what Oliver Sacks does?

Jonah Lehrer, More Voodoo
An interview with Ed Vul – and plenty of response – to the accusations of voodoo statistics with neuroimaging

Remi Sussan, Le Cerveau, Objet Technologique : De nouvelles façons de parler… et de penser
Sapir-Whorf meets brain research in France

Helen Phillips, The Outer Limits of the Human Brain
New Scientist on what we’re learning about intelligence

O. Carter Snead’s Scholarly Papers
The professor and lawyer who examines the intersections of law and neuroscience

Anthropology

Anthropology Theory Timeline
Your online visual guide to the history of anthropology

Nicolas Baumard, La morale n’est pas le sociale
We build institutions, not algorithms for institutions. For more of Baumard, see his list of publications

Prof. Marranci, Understanding Muslim Identity, Rethinking Fundamentalism
An anthropologists argues for us getting beyond dichotomies to understand fundamentalism

Jeff Sommer, When Humans Need a Nudge Toward Rationality
Can we think of cultural nudges?

Michael Austin, A Trumpet with an Uncertain (but Compelling) Sound
Review of the book Literature, Science and the New Humanities – will evolution lead to a new type of literary criticism?

Reverend, On the Death of Ideology
Ideas vs. memes – which is a better approach?

Brandon Keim, DNA Could Illuminate Origins of Medieval Manuscripts
Animal skins were used for parchment – and now manuscripts can be compared and tracked

Open Anthropology, “In Complete World” at the International Ethnographic Film Festival of Quebec, 2009
The new documentary – ethnographic style – and Max’s reflections and correspondence with the film maker

John Hawks, Gene-Culture Models and Reductionism
The need to consider different patterns of gene-culture interaction, not just one model

Thinking Meat, Religion and Visual Perception
Culture makes a difference

Maggie’s Farm, It’s Thomas Merton’s Birthday
I like Merton too!

David Sloan Wilson, Review of Christian Smith’s “Moral Believing Animals”
Evolutionary social constructivism – it’s a start

AHRC Culture and the Mind Project
Website for this major British project to “investigate the philosophical consequences of the impact of culture on the mind and the cognitive and evolutionary foundations of culture.”

Nicholas Kristof, Mistresses of the Universe
The NY Times columnist tries to work the whole testosterone-risk taking angle, in arguing for incorporating women into the upper echelons of investment banking. He probably should have first read Greg’s piece, Testosterone and cortisol explain market behaviour?

Mari Yamaguchi, In Japan, You Are What Your Blood Type Is
And best selling books prove it!

Gatochy’s Blog, The Superstitious, Addictive Nature of the News Media
“If journalists really believed that news have the power to make a difference by spurring the public to action, they would invariably provide suggestions for what you can do to change things for the better. That hardly ever happens. Those truly caring, compassionate individuals who would like to act are left feeling helpless and impotent.”

Jhangora, Moon in Different Cultures
India, Japan and more – plus a wonderful lullaby in video

Sports

Dan Peterson, Kids Who Exercise Get Better Grades
The real cross-training!

BPS Research Digest, Olympic Athletes Reveal Their Mental Strategies
Damn, I thought it just stopped at “no pain no gain,” like my coach told me in eighth grade

Alan Schwarz, Roethlisberger’s Injury Highlights Nerve Center for Head Trauma
Nice piece on the work of the Pittsburgh program to deal with head injuries while playing American football, and the testing and tensions of sports therein. For more, see the recent sixth confirmed case of chronic traumatic encephalopathy in NFL football players.

Gina Kolata, Fitness Isn’t an Overnight Sensation
And here I thought getting in shape was like a TV ad

Michael Sokolove, Happiness Is a Warm Football Coach
Profile of Pete Carroll – all enthusiasm. He applies the same approach to working with LA gang members

Gretchen Reynolds, Stretching: The Truth
Stretching is not a static thing – the latest summary of what we know about effective stretching. And be sure to check out the video!

Mo Costandi, You Cannot Be Serious! Perceptual Errors by Professional Tennis Referees
The brain of a tennis ref, it’s not infallible

Colleen Iudice, Rock Steady Boxing
Parkinson’s and boxing!

Dan Peterson, Rotate It Like Ronaldo?
Gauging spin and trajectory of the free kick

Jonah Lehrer, Football and the Unconscious
How do quarterbacks make a decision? Not in the same way as on the Wonderlic IQ exam

Karen Crouse, Paralyzed, Jaguars’ Collier Is Still Smiling
A touching story about Richard Collier and his recovery, despite being paralyzed from the waist down after getting shot

Christopher Percy Collier, It Hurts, but Is It Worth It?
Sports massage – amateur athletes are finding the benefits too

Tara Parker-Pope, With the Right Motivation, That Home Gym Makes Sense
Buying a home gym can help you get started, but it’s believing that you can use it to make a difference that matters more in the long run