Around the Web Digest

Enjoy this sampling of what we Minds were reading and linking to in the month of August. You can also receive them instantly and on a daily basis by “following” @savageminds on Twitter or “liking” Savage Minds on Facebook. If you’ve found something around the web that might be of interest to the Savage Minds community email me — mdthomps AT odu.edu.

• Cool maps made from geolocation tags in Flickr and Twitter posts. //MT
• Pamthropologist gets grouchy over mandatory teacher training. //MT
• J. Edgar Hoover kept close tabs on commie-jew, Claude Levi-Strauss. //MT
• The next financial bubble: student loans. //MT
• James Gleick: How Google Dominates Us (round up of several new books) //RM
• Self-publish your thesis! /KF
• “The thing about Chinese people is that they are always telling you what the thing about Chinese people is.” //MT
• Linguistic Moments in the Movies, Part VII /KF
• The Endangered Alphabets Project /KF
• Living Anthropologicaly on the future of cultural relativism, defends NYT op-ed about DSK and immigrants in US. //MT
• Won’t somebody please think of the children! A Facebook-is-making-kids-self-obsessed parody via Mind Hacks. //MT
• Drought in FLA uncovers 100 ancient dugout canoes. //MT
• Alternative methods of citation on Wikipedia for less-documented languages. /via @zunguzungu /KF
• Buddhist monks mark Wheel Turning Day, purchase 600lbs of live Maine lobsters & release them into the Atlantic. //MT
• Zunguzungu has compiled a very handy digest of analysis and reporting about the credit downgrade. //MT
• How does the US credit downgrade compare to other nations credit? This map shows S&P ratings around the world. //MT
• Romancing the PhD: when men feel threatened by smart women with credentials. //MT
• Somatosphere weighs in on the Horn of Africa famine with analysis and links. //MT
• ‘Hobbit’ just a deformed human? /KF
• Drug Dealers May Have Wiped Out “Uncontacted” Amazon Tribe /KF
• New study reverses a decade of research claiming chimpanzee selfishness /KF
• Anthropology of Facebook is an antidote to moral panic and trend peices — more here. //MT
• Children are learning indigenous language and culture in the heart of Bogota, Columbia. //MT
• Russell Brand’s op-ed on the UK riots is, perhaps unexpectedly, intelligent and acerbic. //MT
• The annotated apocalypse: Anthropologists tackle 2012 /KF
• Special issue of Qualitative Sociology: Ethics Beyond the IRB /RM
• Cosmetic surgery’s moral imperative in Brazil prompts reconsideration of the market’s relation to citizenship //MT
• RT @kmlawson: The Digital Humanities Are Already on Kickstarter /KF
• A revealing and somewhat unsettling photo essay “Where Children Sleep” //MT
• Early success using facial recognition software on photos of chimps. //MT
• RT @jonahlehrer: Why Are Scientific Retractions Increasing? /KF
• Meet the exorcist schoolgirls who travel the world casting out demons. //MT
• David Graeber on Doug Henwood’s radio show: Behind the News. /KF
• Study finds positive statistical association between austerity measures and unrest. /KF
• Law&Disorder: Frontline, ProPublica, Times-Picayune collaborative investigation on police Katrina shootings //MT
• Article about G. Bateson & art in the Guardian /via @danlatorre /KF
• Marshall Sahlins on Iraq: The State-of-Nature Effect. An OA article from Anth Today /RM
• The 400 richest families could buy everyone in the US (fill in the blank) //MT
• Bid to rename Homo Sapiens called unwise. //MT
• White supremacy keeps growing in Montana. Anyone want to slip them some subversive art? //MT
• “unacceptable” – Association of Black Women Historians critical of The Help. //MT
• The camera that supposedly changed the world /KF
• Education and the Structural Crisis of Capital /KF
• Psychologist discovers that the rich are generally more selfish than others. //MT
• Poynter: witty tweets get people to click on links, tweets that read like headlines generate more retweets. //MT
• A theory of junk drawers – book reviews at Material World: “Paraphernalia” and “Islands of Privacy”. //MT
• Paul Gilroy on the UK riots: militarized state, information flows, comparisons to 1981, immigration, &more. //MT
• RT @CliftonWiens: Homo erectus as sailors? /KF
• Its like “I (heart) Huckabees” in real life: philosophical counseling. A use for degrees in applied philosophy //MT
• Roman wreck full of wine jars found off the coast of Albania. //MT
• Exhibit showcases the influence of Japanese woodcut tradition on Inuit artists. //MT
• Mothers and whores: ex-pornstar turns to performance art, is shamed for nursing her infant dressed as Marilyn. //MT
• RT @Ememqut01: Berenstain Bears will soon be speaking Lakota /KF
• Afrika/Afrique/Africa – tribal art showcase in Vienna. //MT
• Bird intelligence and problem solving compares favorably with primates in some instances. //MT
• George Monbiot: Academic publishers make Murdoch look like a socialist /KF
• RT @acorsin “unpaid non-cash costs of peer review… by academics is £1.9 bn globally each year” [PDF] p.19 /KF

Matt Thompson is adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice at Old Dominion University. He was once cast as a soldier in Andrew Jackson's army in a theatrical production on an Indian reservation.