• #travelinsight 77: You can’t live a life worth living without putting yourself in risk of dying sometimes. #
• Press FAILS: Why US public blames politics instead of banks, presidential coverage bias& #OWS protests „unprecedented“? http://t.co/jhY4Dudf #
• Camera about to be released where you decide the focus after taking the picture http://t.co/tKWygZw4 Really a 3D picture of course. Amazing! #
• Charities petitioning in favor of AT&T — T-Mobile merger show how companies abuse „doing good“ for lobby purposes http://t.co/aS1zcG7Z #
• Consequentialist argument for a quite radical, though flexible, pacifism in both social movements and countries http://t.co/migX5zSh #
• Respect to #Mankiw for pointer to distributional effects of 9–9-9 tax proposal http://t.co/i6SwcP3X bottom 90% loose, top 1% win big time… #
• Wie sähe eine Welt ohne Vergewaltigungen aus http://t.co/fdMfqkpn Illustriert gut „male privilege“, siehe auch: http://t.co/2GrtNsFu #
• Looking at mental disorders from an evolutionary perspective leads to seeing them as caused by social problems http://t.co/wQpfXi6G #
• European „discovery“ of the Americas contributed to „Little Ice Age“ by wiping out native Americans who burned wood http://t.co/dp7ujyZ8 #

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Before the memories fade too much, and with already a great deal of nostalgia despite the great reception my Johannesburg and Sao Paulo Couchsurfing–hosts and now the „Fazenda Ambiental Fortaleza“ have offered me, here my last pictures and impressions from East Africa (Tanzania, mostly). It was interesting to see my perception change from somebody who lived and worked there and took everything as basically what it was back to more a tourist-visitor’s view. The process of saying good-bye, letting go, and becoming somebody new yet once more.

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• War of %s: 99% blame rich 1% http://t.co/dUujiTRl 53% who pay taxes blame lazy 47% http://t.co/GpPhfVqg 99% strike back http://t.co/p1cGH42x #
• Psychologists debunk gender differences widely held & often claimed to be evolutionary http://t.co/zL4Y7g3i How study design shapes results! #
• Neues Militärmuseum Dresden klingt super http://t.co/RjAYbVCR „Kulturgeschichte der Gewalt“, Perspektivwechsel zu entwaffnender Ehrlichkeit #
• Oh Italia RT @zeitonline #Berlusconi braucht offenbar viel Bestätigung. Zum 51. Mal stellt er nachher im Parlament die Vertrauensfrage. (kh) #
• Financial Coercion Test http://t.co/HnFcPALl what makes the difference between forced prostitution and empowered women in „the business” #
• Amazing personal story of growing up working class in a „middle class society“ http://t.co/y3PW5Q0T Also some caution about „we are the 99%“ #
• Amanda Knox and Troy Davis http://j.mp/qfk43c Your country is seriously messed up if you look up to the Italian legal system. Oh USA! #
• RT @zeitonline_dig CCC enttarnt Bundestrojaner: Er kann und tut demnach sehr viel mehr, als die Verfassung erlaubt http://j.mp/nOeWF2 (kb) #
• „We are the 99 percent“ http://t.co/9KIwuAm2 USA is reinventing class warfare — well the top 1% did years ago I suppose #
• Bewegender, vielschichtiger #ZEIT Artikel über das „neue Deutschland“ http://j.mp/p4thFL Einwanderungsland, Zuversichtsland.Wir werden bunt! #
• #Krugman makes me wonder: has economic „science“ become an epiphenomenon of partisan ideology (aka class warfare?!) http://j.mp/rceKrM wow! #
• Some markets need *massive* regulation http://j.mp/oSgv6n via #Krugman Air pollution externalities exceed output in some industries … #

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• #travelinsight 77: Even an old computer and slow internet can speed up wow! when you switch from IE6 to #Firefox Thank god for nerds. #
• Sweet erotic calendar of male librarians http://j.mp/pMCSrP Cool! And: Men being sexy is a feminist issue http://j.mp/piygwf #
• #travelinsight 76: Interesting feeling to have a substantial white population with this defiant „this is my home“ attitude in South Africa. #
• #travelinsight 75: And not a single mixed group of friends out shopping or anything either. Oh race! East Africa doing much better there. #
• #travelinsight 74: While „old white man young black beauty“ depresses me, it’s even worse to not see a single mixed couple in a week in Jozi #
• Gay soldier example of US conservatives‘ discrepancy between political ideals and practical judgements http://j.mp/oYdNDW closet liberals? #
• Economic rational agent models‘ „two-step of terrific triviality“ http://j.mp/p8Ssz1 oscillating between classic and extended „rationality“ #

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• „In acting there isn’t job security“ http://j.mp/r6QTH1 Matt Damon ambushed on education by libertarian reporters & kicks their ass. Respect #
• Developing countries: „What’s missing are motivation and confidence“ http://j.mp/r1fpHh Interesting diagnosis, ambivalent about the solution #
• Against the wave of „empathy is the answer“: we need moral codes to motivate pro-social acts, and debate them publicly http://j.mp/nqvC0Z #
• via Google Correlate („automatic logical fallacy generator“ http://j.mp/qYPTvn): power of new-year’s resolutions http://j.mp/patKtp #
• Remember: you can sell your time, but you cannot buy it back. (Paulo Coelho) http://j.mp/o8kfwO #
• Ehem. Freiburger Rektor Voßkuhle (jetzt Verfassungsgerichtspräsident), über Europa, Grundgesetz und Euro-Rettungs-Urteil http://j.mp/qDg7nK #
• Katalonien verbietet ohnehin zunehmend unpopulären Stierkampf, mit Millionenentschädigungen http://j.mp/qPU9Ct Konflikt der Nationalismen #
• Spannendes #TAZ Streitgespräch Veganer und „Flexitarier“ http://j.mp/nyymq5 Nachhaltige Entwicklung des Gewissens oder bequeme Ausflucht? #

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• Qualvoller (und weitgehend einkommensfreier) Ausbildungsweg zum Psychologischen Psychotherapeuten http://j.mp/owdXrA Ärzte sind schon weiter #
• A Science journal review says gender-separate education based on pseudoscience, with really no benefits http://j.mp/ruHbjA (German SZ link) #
• Glücksatlas 2011 — Deutsche glücklicher trotz Wirtschaftskrise http://j.mp/nNaHQ9 Glückwunsch Johannes, gute Arbeit! #
• Evolutionary algorithm finds optimal build orders for StarCraft II http://j.mp/qReoQx the right place for quantitative science after all… #
• Economics should become an „operational discipline“ like law instead of (metaphysical) science http://j.mp/rl79BC (can skip to 3rd heading) #
• Debt increases young adults‘ self-esteem — apologetics of the credit culture http://j.mp/ndLgIU #addictivespending #americandreama #
• Economic practice of discounting cash flows institutionalizes short-term thinking http://j.mp/nUdhiE makes environment analyzes useless #

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Via Chris Bertram on Crooked Timber I read an article by David Graeber, a social anthropologist, called „On the Invention of Money – Notes on Sex, Adventure, Monomaniacal Sociopathy and the True Function of Economics“. It is sufficiently long to really cover all these topics, and I agree with Bertram that it is „one of the most informative and entertaining pieces I’ve read in a long while“. Do read the whole thing!

The core argument is about how money came to be — which in most economic textbooks is explained as a logical development from a barter trade system, where you have to find somebody with a complementary need and offer in the marketplace. But this assumption about our economic past is soundly refuted by actual anthropological and historical research. It is very fascinating to follow the research as to what are actual probable pathways to money usage. And how economic activities were organized before that tells us a lot about how the economic system shapes even deep-rooted human qualities. The bottom line there is that behavior in accordance with „Homo Oeconomicus“ models probably only really came about after markets were invented. And it is because economists cannot (or don’t want to) imagine a human being with different ways of decision-making that they persist on the „money developed from barter trade“ myth despite solid evidence to the contrary. This is, again, in the service of not acknowledging the own status as a „reflexive“ social science which not only describes but also strongly influences human behavior and social processes.

So, first of all, how did people go about their business before money was around?

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• Micro-entrepreneurs move from software to hardware http://j.mp/pD34t8 is the era of companies coming to an end? Long but good. Thanks Markus #
• Average American consumes more animal products than fruit & veg http://j.mp/ozwC92 of course way too much sugar, too. Cool visualization… #
• Hälfte der Langzeitarbeitslosen hat keine abgeschlossene Berufsausbildung, 40% über 50 Jahre alt http://j.mp/qNSb0Z faul? #
• Thorough feminist critique of public discourse about evolution of female orgasms http://j.mp/p4SWiL Must-read for EvoPsy-fans #
• Psychology demonstrates bisexual men exist http://j.mp/pH9FsB Ouch, science can be so far from real life can’t it? #quantitativepitfalls #

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For the WWOOFing I just got back from, I’m forced to share pictures of other volunteers there due to the theft of my camera. And it’s so hard to buy a decent replacement even in Nairobi! The good thing is, there are some things which even I wasn’t lucky enough to see. Like the local youths playing football on a field near the farm and nursery school that are part of the project.

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Back in Nairobi after the WWOOFing in Odienya near Rongo near Kisii near Kisumu in Kenya (more on that later) I am wrapping up „my Africa“, in a way. And now that I’m happily back to a reliable electricity connection, I start by posting some pictures from Zanzibar. Those are still taking with my own camera, oh how I miss it! Beware of Nairobi matatus (the infamous minibuses)…

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