ANTHRO: Pandering To The Sensationalist Masses

Time magazine has some interesting articles, but this one just seems beyond the pale with its blan=tent pandering to the Discovery Channell/TLC/History Channel crowd.  Cryotozologists, Sasquwatchers, astronuts and other conspiracy theorists will love this outrageous treatment of what is an uncommon but neverthless fairly well-document practice uncovered by bioarcheologists the world over:  head-wrapping.

 

Ancient Conehead-like ‘Alien’ Skulls Unearthed in Mexico

 

ANTHRO: Food Shopping, Grocery Stores, and The Culture Of Consumption

Grocery stores fascinate me for many reasons.  Here is an academic treatment of grocery shopping by some obscure little university  reasearch lab:

Grocery Shopping Psychology
http://foodpsychology.cornell.edu/research/grocery-shopping-psychology.html

The Cornell Food & Brand Lab

In addition, some less academic, more "popular" treatments:

How Grocery Stores Use Psychology to Manipulate Consumers
http://voices.yahoo.com/how-grocery-stores-psychology-manipulate-consumers-6693388.html?cat=46

How Grocery Stores Get You To Spend Your Money Even When You Think You Are Being Thrifty!
http://www.moneymatters101.com/savemoney/gstore.asp

GEO: Immigration reform bill likely in the Senate. What will the House do?

This from "politico":

Senate group reaches immigration deal

Illinois senior senator and co-sponor of the DREAM act Dick Durbin (top- second from left) is among the so-called "gang of 8".
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/01/senate-group-reaches-immigration-deal-86793
 

And from the New York Times (some multimedia here as well):

Senators Offer a Bipartisan Blueprint for Immigration

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/28/us/politics/senators-agree-on-blueprint-for-immigration.html?_r=0

 

GEO: Citizenship exam- Are you smarter than an immigrant?

Take the us Citizenship test at the Christian Science Monitor:

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2011/0104/Could-you-pass-a-US-citizenship-test/Who-signs-bills?cmpid=prc:ctzn:d&nav=448128-csm_quiz-rcPromo

You must get 58 out of 96 questions correct in order to pass.
92% of immigrants seeking citizen pass the test, although they are given an oral exam where they must answer 6 out of 10 questions correctly to pass.

INDIA: The largest Single Gathering of People on the Planet is a Hindu Ritual

The World of the Kumbh Mela: Inside the Largest Single Gathering of Humanity

Read more: http://world.time.com/2013/01/15/the-kumbh-mela-inside-the-worlds-single-largest-gathering-of-humanity/#ixzz2I9IMtbVA

Update:  (Feb. 10, 2013)

 

 

Pilgrims Killed in Crush to Get Home from Indian Festival

Read more: http://world.time.com/2013/02/10/pilgrims-killed-in-crush-to-get-home-from-indian-festival/#ixzz2KifccrMu