Stonehenge!

Ian Kuijt, my archaeologist friend and colleague here at Notre Dame, pointed out this You Tube clip of the comic Eddie Izzard taking on Stonehenge. Very funny!

For those of you wanting to know more about the actual site, here’s the Wikipedia Stonehenge link. Britannia also has some good short coverage that focuses on the construction of the henge.

Eternal Idol discusses recent claims that Stonehenge was a site of religious healing, while remote central covers the emerging evidence that Stonehenge was used as a burial site. And for some actual digging, see the Stonehenge Riverside Project.

Colour, is it in the brain?

Colour is a perceptual interaction arising from our ability to discriminate between different wavelengths of light from within a narrow band of electromagnetic radiation. Light itself has no colour. The colour of a specific wavelength can change according to context. For example, in the above picture, despite having the same spectral reflectance, the ‘X’ appears to be different when set against the two different backgrounds (Albers J. 1975). Continue reading “Colour, is it in the brain?”

Wednesday Round Up #27

This week I bring a diverse set of anthropology readings, a bunch of policy pieces I’ve found interesting of late, and a long list of psychiatry posts and articles at the end. Enjoy!

Anthropology

Robert Bellah, The Renouncers
The esteemed US sociologist on notions of progress and disaster, or negotiating between Habermas and the ancient Greeks

Mind Hacks, Through a Lab Darkly?
“Cognitive ethology”—getting the psychologists out of the lab and into the field. And I was just lecturing to my qualitative methods students about how ethnographic research can increase the validity of our measures…

Michiko Kakutani, When Fear and Chaos Are Normal, Peace and Safety Become Unimaginable
Review of the new book, Waiting for an Ordinary Day: The Unraveling of Life in Iraq, by the Wall Street journalist with anthropological sensibilities Farnaz Fassihi

LL Wynn, HTS and Military Targeting?
Reaction over at Culture Matters to the recent Harpers essay, “Human quicksand for the U.S. Army, a crash course in cultural studies” (subscription needed for full access) by Steve Featherstone

Abby Aguirre, Roaming Freely in a Land of Restraints
Review of the new book by Raja Shehadeh, Palestinian Walks: Forays Into a Vanishing Landscape, covering six walks the author took in the West Bank and the encounters and reflections that brought

Hannah Seligson, Girl Power at School, but Not at the Office
The gender gap in the transition from university to work, building off a new book by the journalist author

Benedict Carey, Spot on Popularity Scale Speaks to the Future; Middle Has Its Rewards
Longitudinal study of high school students – mean queens and lording jocks fade, while socially skilled individuals find happiness… Or popularity as seen through social networks.

Natalie Angier, About Death, Just Like Us or Pretty Much Unaware?
Animals coping with the death of a loved one. More like us than we had imagined

Carl Zimmer, Gaming Evolution
The new video game Spore finds a happy home, with some reservations, among hard-core academic biologists

Policy

Alan Blinder, Is History Siding With Obama’s Economic Plan?
Looks like yes. Democrats rule over better economic times, with less inequality, than Republicans since the post WWII era. “Data for the whole period from 1948 to 2007, during which Republicans occupied the White House for 34 years and Democrats for 26, show average annual growth of real gross national product of 1.64 percent per capita under Republican presidents versus 2.78 percent under Democrats.”
Based on the book Unequal Democracy by Larry Bartels. And see here for a long NY Times essay on Obama’s economics.

Continue reading “Wednesday Round Up #27”