Bbenzon
Humankind got its start on the African savannas some hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of years ago. At various times in our cultural history we’ve moved to distinctly new cultural ground, as it were. And so we are moving now, and have been for the past half century. This blog is how I see that move. Intellectually, I'm broadly interested in culture and the brain. Within that compass, anything could show up here. Literature and films (including animation), certainly, music as well, and graffiti. But, other things may show up as well. It's a blog, don't you know, it moves.
MY BLOGS
-
New Savanna
http://new-savanna.blogspot.com/
Humankind got its start on the African savannas some hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of years ago. At various times in our cultural history we’ve moved to distinctly new cultural ground, as it were. And so we are moving now, and have been for the past half century. This blog is how I see that move. I'm broadly interested in culture and the brain. Within that compass, anything could show up here. Literature and films (including animation), certainly, music as well, and graffiti. But, other things may show up as well. It's a blog, don't you know, it moves.
LATEST ARTICLES ( 6487 )
-
Gives New Meaning to Human-aided Translation
From The New York Times:Inspired by a harrowing episode when Mr. Frankel could not communicate the symptoms of a virulent stomach bug to a pharmacist in Beijing... Read more
Posted on 12 June 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Rheingold and Alexander on Tech and Higher Ed (MOOCs R Us?)
Bryan Alexander discusses high tech and higher education with Howard Rheingold HERE and HERE. (same video in each case, different framing). Read more
Posted on 11 June 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Napoleon Chagnon and the Yanomamo: Some Lore, Curious but Not Quaint
Napoleon Chagnon is one of the most controversial figures in anthropology. You can find a little background on him, and his work among the Yanomamo, in this pos... Read more
Posted on 11 June 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
From Xanadu to the American Dream
Sometime in the late 19th century a British poet named Samuel Taylor Coleridge read a 17th century travel book and came away with the name of Kubla Khan's summe... Read more
Posted on 10 June 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Liberty Swamp
Yes, that IS the Statue of Liberty you see there. But it's not how you're used to seeing it. Obviously. I'm standing in a small wetlands area (aka swamp) in... Read more
Posted on 10 June 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Silicon Valley and the High Tech Politics
I'm halfway through an interesting article with the following deck (blurb): "CHANGE THE WORLD: Silicon Valley transfers its slogans—and its money—to the realm o... Read more
Posted on 07 June 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Gay Disney?
Salon has an interesting article on the lack of gay and lesbian characters in Disney animation. It links to this Autostraddle post from last year: Evil Disney... Read more
Posted on 06 June 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Animals R Us & We R Them
"...there are more captive tigers living in the state of Texas alone than wild specimens running free anywhere else on the planet. Read more
Posted on 06 June 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Dimensions of Chimpzanzee Personality
Reported in Science Daily:June 3, 2013 — While psychologists have long debated the core personality dimensions that define humanity, primate researchers have... Read more
Posted on 05 June 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Miyazaki: Greatest Living Filmmaker?
I want to step back from my descriptive and analytical consideration of specific sequences and motifs in Miyazaki’s films and confront a question that’s been... Read more
Posted on 05 June 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Kids These Days
A Washington Post article about young people who work well-paying jobs so they can give much of their income away. For example:Take Jeff Kaufman. A Cambridge,... Read more
Posted on 02 June 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Train Tech
The Economist has an interesting article on train technology. A representative paragraph:Accelerating a passenger train to 300kph and holding that speed for... Read more
Posted on 02 June 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Moral Monkeys
Two years ago philosopher Peter Railton published “Moral Camouflage or Moral Monkeys?” in today’s New York Times. Discussion took place at On the Human Forum,... Read more
Posted on 01 June 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
See Images of Atoms and Bonds with Textbook Clarity
See images of carbon atoms and the bonds between them HERE:What the microscope showed the researchers, says Fischer, "was amazing. Read more
Posted on 01 June 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Balancing Out in Breaking Bad, S3, E10, Fly
One think I noticed a while ago is that Breaking Bad keeps you moving back and forth on its major characters, especially Walter and Jesse. Read more
Posted on 28 May 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Watch Out, Dan Dennett, Your Mind’s Changing Up on You!
I want to look at two recent pieces by Daniel Dennett. One is a formal paper from 2009, The Cultural Evolution of Words and Other Thinking Tools (Cold Spring... Read more
Posted on 27 May 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Timing, and Speaking
Salon has an interesting article about time and timing (excerpted from, Time Warped: Unlocking the Mysteries of Time Perception, a book by Claudia Hammond). Read more
Posted on 27 May 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Bleg: Length of Dramas and Comedies on TV
TV comedies tend to be half-hour shows while dramas tend to be hour-long shows? Why? And why don't we have comedies with a continuous story over a whole season... Read more
Posted on 26 May 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Coincidence in Breaking Bad
In my previous post on Breaking Bad I noted that the show seems a bit thick with coincidence. Since the show’s been out for awhile I figured others must have... Read more
Posted on 25 May 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Call This Real
Posted on 24 May 2013 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY