A busy week – but now you can peruse some economics, war, NY Times mind, anthro, and blogging mind.

Top of the List

Sandra Kiume, Social Neuroscience
Channel N gives us a great video with John Cacioppo speaking on “Connected Minds: Loneliness, Social Brains and the Need for Community.” Sometimes Channel N didn’t load right for me, so you can also go straight to the RSA page with the Cacioppo video.

Ed Yong, Holy Fellatio, Batman! Fruit Bats Use Oral Sex to Prolong Actual Sex
What a title! Just wait until you see the video.

David Dobbs, “YouTube! That’s Why I Became A Writer!”
Very funny video about a writer talking with his agent about how to promote his new book

Dan Sperber, Grieving Animals
An amazing photo of chimpanzees, and a big question about culture among our primate relatives

Economics and Neuroanthropology

Simeleon Sense, Video: Bribing vs. signalling – Marketplace Dept. of Behavioral Economics
Funny video – surviving the cubicle during the downturn, as seen through the eyes of a nature documentary

Sean Mallin, PBR and “Hip” Consumption
Pabst Blue Ribbon flies under the advertising radar, and builds a niche market during the economic downturn

Dan Ariely, The Psychology of Money and Habits
“if we understand that long-term, repeated behaviors might reflect our habitual decision-making in the face of complex financial decisions more than they reflect what is truly best for us, we might first examine our old habits and carefully consider whether they indeed make sense or not.”

Lisa Wade, Juxtaposing Wealth and Poverty
Sociological Images on the new campaign by Cordaid to highlight the difference between what we spend on fashion and what goes as aid to development. Some provocative images.

Joe Brewer, How Stripping Supermodels Promote Action On Climate Change
The complete contrast in terms of advertising. Also goes on to consider how insights into the human mind are vital for successful economic/climate change.

Sheen S. Levine, How “Pay It Forward” Happens?
Generalized reciprocity – a video on the sociological approach to this human phenomenon

Jon Elster, Excessive Ambitions
Economics as blinded by rationalized models, with behavioral economics as an alternative

George Soros, Lectures From The Financial Times
Five lectures by the financier and philanthropist, focusing on his concept of an open society and its contrast with typical capitalism

Claudia Dreifus, Where Gifts And Stories Are Crucial To Survivial
A Q & A with Pauline Wiessner about the Kung People of Southern Africa’s Kalahari Desert.

Christopher K. Hsee and Reid Hastie, Decision and Experience: Why Don’t We Choose What Makes Us Happy?
Pdf – Maximization and choosing in our best interest. So old school. Subjective well-being and happiness also matter.

War

Ryan Anderson, anthropology/war/power
Ethnografix gives us the trailer to the Human Terrain movie, and then rounds up a lot of analysis and commentary on the whole HTS project.

Eyal Weizman, The Art Of War
How philosophy has influenced the Israeli Defence Forces.

Eyal Weizman, The Art Of War: Deleuze, Guattari, Debord and the Israeli Defense Force
Part Two on how philosophy has shaped the Israeli Defense Forces.

Damien Cave, Women At Arms – A Combat Role, And Anguish, Too
“Vivienne Pacquette, who served in Iraq, is one of thousands of women who returned from war with a stress disorder.” Chronicles Pacquette’s experience with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

AAA Blog, New Virtual Issue Of Cultural Anthropology: Security
What the latest Cultural Anthropology issue focuses on, namely security. Plus details on two months of free access.

Vaughan Bell, Social Networks Of Murder
“A study that used social network analysis to look at murder as a social interaction between gangs in Chicago to understand how stable networks of retaliation are sustained over time.”

The NY Times Mind

Claudia Vallis, A Powerful Identity, A Vanishing Diagnosis
Asperger’s syndrome, a low-level type of autism, looks like it will be left out of the DSM-V. Lots of people are already reacting to something that has become a social identity, not just a psychiatric diagnosis.

Michelle Slatalla, Sorry, I’ve Got to Go Save My Brain
A mom gets hooked on the iPhone game WordWrap. A funny and revealing piece.

Pamela Paul, Kid Stuff
The science of parenting advice, as told by popular books

Sarah Bowen Shea, Pushing Past The Pain Of Exertion
Explains what exertional pain is and how many runners can deal with exertional pain, using the experiences and advice of the marathon runner Kara Goucher.

Gordon Marino, Kierkegaard On The Couch
The pursuit of what matters in troubled times. Searching for happier times, and philosophy rather than psychiatry as a way to approach mental health.

Anthropology

Bob McDonald, Quirks and Quarks: October 24, 2009
CBC radio program had a really good show, from the Laptop of the Greeks to Babies & Talk

Richard McElreath, The Evolution Of Cultural Evolution
McElreath’s talk at the Kavli Frontiers of Science symposia series (through the National Academy of Sciences), which gives us a powerpoint/audio presentation

Jonathon Shaw, Evolution By Fire
Richard Wrangham: Man the cook

Templeton Foundation, Does Evolution Explain Human Nature?
A chain of dialogue between leading scientists and researchers about the “Big Questions” of science – in this case evolution and human nature. Features people like Franz de Waal, Simon Conway Morris, and Lynn Margulis.

Matt Kaplan, Long-Lived Grannies May Have Fewer Grandchildren
A study finds that the longer grandmothers live, the fewer grandchildren their daughters raised.

Blogging Mind

Metzler/Pooh’s Think, The New Enlightenment, Part 3
Really interesting discussion that examines topics of mind, science, and humanism, including a consideration of one of the writers I admire most, Flannery O’Conner

Neuroskeptic, Placebo vs. Real Coffee
Is belief enough to get us up in the morning?

Vaughan Bell, Visual Illusions Can Be Caused By Imagination
Imagination! And from there to symbolism and meaning. This is an important study because of what it offers in terms of evidence and theoretical connections.

Jamie Davies, Mind Changers: Psychology During The 20th Century
Explores the development of the science of psychology during the 20th century.

Cosma Shalizi, Neuropsychology
An informed discussion of what neuropsychology is…“The attempt to understand mental functions by correlating them with the activities of particular parts of the brain.”

David DiSalvo, Neuroscientist Rebecca Saxe Discusses How We Read Each Other’s Minds
How do we sense the thoughts and feelings of others? Rebecca Saxe discusses this in a video

Neurowhoa, Creationists Declare War Over The Brain
It’s not just about evolution anymore

Frederik Joelving, Mental Maps Reveal The Brain’s Plug-And-Play Plasticity
Researchers persist on investigating the limits of the brain’s flexibility. A Scientific American article, with most of it behind a paywall. But an important topic.

Guiltiero Piccinini, Some Questions On Heterophenomenology
What is heterophenomenology? A key concept for philosophy of brains, that’s what.