Things that have interested me lately

[undyingking]

• Body Ritual among the Nacirema -- famous and influential anthropological article by Horace Miner. A bit dated now (hog hairs?) but it still works pretty well as satire, both of the society and of anthropogical perceptions.
• Are you being ripped of by motor insurers? -- specifically, have they tried to write off your car for a nugatory value when you could get it repaired and roadworthy? THis article shows how to get your own way.
• Natural Science Museum of Barcelona visual database -- clever and fun piece of Flash to explore the animal kingdom. Includes links to Flickr images! This could eat a lot of your time.
• Wikileaks needs money -- a very worthwhile cause, I think.
• The Four Big Myths of Profile Pictures -- not a very serious subject, but neatly and entertainingly explored by the OkCupid people.
• Dewey Organizes Internet Archive Music -- there is loads of great (legal) free music at the Internet Archive, but it's hell browsing it. This new interface seems to do a good and useful job.
• Spotiseek -- uses Last.fm technology to generate Spotify playlists according to your requested likes. This seems to really work well. You can just drag the playlist into your Spotify window.
• My Consulate in Samoa, by William B Churchwood -- a fascinating historical document, very readable and entertaining. Includes an account of the strange Samoan version of cricket.

That'll do for now! So a quick poll, if you'll indulge me:
[Poll #1527090]

Comments

[hatmandu.livejournal.com]

I see the profile pic people are as heedless of 'correlation doesn't mean causation' as I was with my Twanalyst data! But what I want to know is...

...what percentage of your polls has Ticky! as the winning entry?

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

I've yet to get around to writing my long-threatened LJ poll analysis tool, so we may never find out...

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Ticky note: I ticked the WikiLeaks box on the basis that it was interesting to me when I first encountered it, which wasn't here.

Also, I think you may be overlooking some aspects of the profile pic thing. OK Cupid seem very bad at analysing (or predicting) their results, but potentially there's some really interesting social psychology data there. And it could be very serious indeed if the same results were shown to hold up under statistically sound test conditions. Assuming we mean "serious" in the sense of "providing valid and valuable analysis".

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Mm, I wonder if there is actually an extant body of academic research around this area. With lots of tame students on tap, you'd think it would be easy and cheap enough to set up. Journal of Headline-Friendly Social Psychology perhaps?