Wednesday linkage

First off: I'll be at the Boston Public Library tonight at 6pm, a-readin' and a-signin'! Come on by!

Now that I've got a new Robin Abrahams blog up, where I can get all wacky, things over here are going to get a little more predictable. Wednesdays when I don't chat, I'll be posting a roundup of links to things I've been reading about.

This week:

I've got a request for your thoughts on comment policies, a post about behavioral economics, a hilarious video, a very cool arty thing about my book, and two posts about bizarre shoe names (yes, shoe names) on my other blog.

This. I'm ... yeah. Whatever. This. This is what I'm thinking about.

The Globe has a good story about the use of monkeys and apes to study the origins of human economic thinking.

Along similar lines, an NYT article on animals, emotion, and morality. Notable quote: "A monkey lacking in regret might act like a psychopath or a simian Don Quixote." Wouldn't A Monkey Lacking in Regret make an awesome title for a novel? A friend of mine suggests that it would fit right in to the "Ladies' No. 1 Detective Agency" series quite well.

Keeping up on the animal theme, Lance Mannion describes the "Extreme Mammals" exhibit at the Natural History Museum in New York. WANT. TO. GO.

Extreme non-mammals: armed birds. Hat tip to Mr. Improbable.

Mike Merzenich lays the smack down on E.O. Wilson and the nature/nurture debate.

The New York Times considers this survey to reveal depressing evidence that Americans' health habits are getting worse. Given that it's all self-report data, however, maybe we aren't less healthy than we were 20 years ago, but rather, more honest. Good news!

This? Is killing me: a blog dedicated to pictures of goths in hot weather. I have said for years that goths look ridiculous on sunny days. They can look quite nice in November, in a Poe-y kind of way, but on a beautiful day in June? Ditch the Neo trench and put on a nice denim jacket or floral cardigan already. (I say this despite having distinct goth sensibilities and tastes myself, mind. The nice girl at Sephora managed to convince me, with ambassadorial tact, that purple lipstick Does No Favors for a woman over 40, and while my eye saw her wisdom, my heart yet rebelled. And you will take my fishnet stockings when you peel them from my cold dead legs, although these days I favor them unripped, and in brown, grey, and nude rather than black.)

Love to chat about social dilemmas? Slate's Dear Prudence also does online chats. Here's the transcript of her latest. I like her answer to the first question, it's very much how I would think about the situation, too. (And keep reading--there's a great callback to the "renewal of vows" question later.)

Is this sweater really awesome, or the most hideous garment of all time? I can't make up my mind. You know in bad movies when the conspiracy theorist guy asks, "Crazy? Am I? Or am I the sanest person you know?" That is the question this sweater is asking me, and I cannot answer it:

Should I just buy the damn thing?

If you're missing "The Office," the latest webisode is up in its entirety at Hulu. It's a nice one for those of us unhappy that we didn't get enough Creed or Oscar this season. And what do you think of the big season finale surprise? I'm not thrilled with it. I have yet to see a sitcom that improved when one of the main characters got pregnant. I can only imagine how disappointed male fans are to realize that this effectively ends the slim chances of ever seeing Jenna Fischer in a becoming outfit on that show.

If you've read or seen anything good this week, leave it in comments, along with thoughts about the Golden Rod Rainbow Stripe Shawl Sweater Shrug Cardigan and Pam's pregnancy.

UPDATE: A reader sends in a link to another Ethicist column about hosting, guesting, and damages.