“Dr. SkySkull” selects several notable posts each week from a miscellany of ResearchBlogging.org categories. He blogs at Skulls in the Stars.

(I’m out of town at a meeting this week, and didn’t have as much time to read all the posts in my area. I didn’t want to leave people hanging, however, so here’s a few of the posts that jumped out at me this week; next week I’ll catch up on all of my reading!)

• Anatomy of a Superstition: When Your Eye “Jumps”. Superstitions can be strange things, and their origins are usually lost to history. Investigations of such beliefs, however, can lead to insights of how a people lived. Krystal of Anthropology in Practice discusses the Trinidadian view of “eye jumping”, and the possible origins and purpose of the idea.
• Mesa Verde Water Control. Natives of the Southwestern United States lived in areas of extreme aridity, but still managed to build significant population centers. In a detailed post, teofilo of Gambler’s House discusses the elaborate techniques that cliff-dwelling Americans used to collect and use scarce water resources.
• Earthquakes and Volcanoes in Saudi Arabia! Have you ever heard of such a thing? Likely not, because the volcanoes in Saudi haven’t erupted for a long time! Nevertheless, geophilo of Traversing the Razor discusses how recent earthquakes in the region have raised the possibility of eruptions — or at least more earthquakes — in the near future.

Check back next week for more “miscellaneous” suggestions!