It’s surprising that, six years down the road, we don’t seem to be overwhelmed with commentary about September 11. Part of that may be because no election awaits us in November; I’m sure that next year will bring with it its fair share of heartfelt testimonials, somber speeches, and assignments of blame.
Category Archives: Well Worth Reading
An Equal, Not a Token
A friend of mine, Ashok Selvam, wrote a strong piece on cultural assumptions and identity politics for the Daily Herald. It’s partially a reaction to a tragic local story where a mother and her two children died in a fire set by the mom, but it goes beyond that, evoking humor and sadness alike.
Go Ape
One of the most memorable things of any Intro to Anthropology class are bonobos. These chimpanzee cousins, found only in the Democratic Republic of Congo, live in peaceful, female-led groups. They eschew violence and deal with stress that comes their way through casual sex, which often involves the entire group and employs the missionary position and same-sex partners.
In short, they’re sex monkeys. They’re cool. In college, my roommates and I even named our short-lived band after them.
Our Imperfect Brains
The New York Times Science Section has an article on how easy it is to manipulate the little machines that lie at the heart of us.
In a recent experiment, psychologists at Yale altered people’s judgments of a stranger by handing them a cup of coffee.
The study participants, college students, had no idea that their social instincts were being deliberately manipulated. On the way to the laboratory, they had bumped into a laboratory assistant, who was holding textbooks, a clipboard, papers and a cup of hot or iced coffee — and asked for a hand with the cup.
That was all it took: The students who held a cup of iced coffee rated a hypothetical person they later read about as being much colder, less social and more selfish than did their fellow students, who had momentarily held a cup of hot java.
Scents, signage, and symbols can all act as little triggers, the article tells us. There’s no word on whether the scientists credit Elvis Costello for his early work on the subject.