This week, after some great favs, we have war and violence, brain development, anthropology, and the brain. And Happy Holidays to everyone!

Top of the List

Carl Feagans, Alien Skulls? Not Even Close!
The shaping of skulls by the Maya. Wow.

Benedict Carey, Psychiatrists Revise the Book of Human Troubles
The DSM-V – politics and money infect the creation of the next psychiatric diagnostic manual. For reactions, see Mind Hacks and Furious Seasons.

Julian Baggini, A Piece of iMe: An Interview with David Chalmers
A discussion of the extended mind over at The Philosopher’s Magazine

Furious Seasons, Seattle Snowball Fight
With lots of snow, two neighborhood bars get it on in these YouTube clips. Very funny.

Archaeoastronomy, If You Put a Snail Shell to Your Ear Can You Hear the Sound of Your Thoughts?
Snail shells, human ornamentation, and the evolution of the human mind

War and Violence

Mudhafer Al-Husaini & Erica Goode, Prescription Drug Abuse Rises Among Iraqi Troops
Internationalizing both PTSD and functional drug use.

Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson, Rural Afghans Resistant To Official Judicial System
NPR on tribal councils, power, state development, and the administration of justice in Afghanistan

Scott Malcolson, When to Intervene
NY Times review of two books with opposing views on humanitarian intervention

Melinda Wenner, Soldiers Who Have Taken a Life More Likely to Defend Iraq War
Scientific American piece on values, dissonance, and service

Culture Matters, Nature Calls for End to HTS
Yet another call to end the Human Terrain System

Shashank Bengali, Forget Depp: Somali Pirates Risk All for Riches, Women
Sound just like movie pirates to me

A.C. Thompson, Katrina’s Hidden Race War
Racial violence and vigilantes in the aftermath of the hurricane – an in-depth report from The Nation

Brain Development

Todd Datz, Lower Childhood IQ Associated With Higher Risk of Adult Mental Disorders
The latest from the longitudinal Dunedin study in New Zealand – intelligence as resilience?

Scicurious, Einstein Was Smart, But Could He Play Violin?
Training with a musical instrument as a child leads to gains in verbal and nonverbal ability later in life – so, do skills transfer?

New Scientist, Deficit in “Poor” Brains Identified
Poor kids showed less activation in the prefrontal cortex in shape-recognition tasks

Anthropology

Laurie Edwards, Narrative Medicine: Better Doctors, Better Patients?
Writing, reading and the practice of medicine, with some great book recommendations too

Mike Carlow, Bringing Nations Together to Strengthen Language: Successful 2008 Lakota Dakota Nakota Language Summit
Revitalizing languages and strengthening community

Inductivist, Fat and Happy
Fat makes for happiness, plus some great graphs from the General Social Survey

Jen O’Neill, Happy Birthday, Margaret Mead, Cultural Anthropologist
It was Dec. 16th! A short and glowing bio included

Tina Rosenberg, A Payoff out of Poverty?
Persistent poverty, Mexico’s governmental aid, and lessons for the US

Brain

David Buller, Evolution of the Mind: 4 Fallacies of Psychology
Evolutionary psychology gets torn a new one at Scientific American. Dienekes jumps on board by adding some critique of his own.

Natalie Angier, A Highly Evolved Propensity for Deceit
Not just us, but our primate cousins too.

Afarensis, Von Economo Neurons and Hominoids
Van Economo neurons in the anterior cingulate cortex and fronto-insula cortex, our ape cousins, and higher level cognitive processing

BayBlab, The Rise and Fall of Phrenology
History review, and modern reflections on neuroimaging

My Mind on Books, Philosophy of Mind Books 2008-2009
Just out and forthcoming books to help you understand your brain understanding itself

Laurie Bartels, 5 Tips on Lifelong Learning & The Adult Brain
Challenge that neuroplasticity!

Brian Newsome, “I’ve Never Seen Anything Like It.”
Reporting on infant with the brain tumor that contained a foot and other partially formed appendages. For the graphic photo, see Moneduloides.