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
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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 ( 7273 )
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Are Trump and Musk Leading a Tax Revolt by Firing 6000 IRS Agents?
Lawrence GibbsFred T. Goldberg Jr.Charles RossottiMark EversonJohn KoskinenCharles Rettig and Daniel Werfel, Trump Just Fired 6,700 I.R.S. Workers in the Middl... Read more
Posted on 24 February 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
There is Cultural Variability in Attitudes Toward Chatbots Mediated by...
Folk, D. P., Wu, C., Heine, S. J. (2025). Cultural Variation in Attitudes Toward Social Chatbots. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 0(0).... Read more
Posted on 24 February 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Claude 3.5 on Bipolar Disorder
Once again we’re back to my series of reflections on melancholy and creativity. As you may recall, it started with an article in 3 Quarks Daily: Melancholy and... Read more
Posted on 23 February 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Sunrise at 7AM and 20º F. in Hoboken, NJ, on Feb. 22, 2025
Posted on 22 February 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
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GPT in the Classroom, Part 3: Omega Or Bust!
In playing around with chatbots, first ChatGPT and now Claude 3.5, I found that the most interesting way to get it to create poetry is to give it a rich prompt. Read more
Posted on 22 February 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Magic of French Toast Returns to New Savanna
Posted on 22 February 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
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The USA Doesn’t Pay Public School Teachers Enough
Bayer, Patrick J. and Blair, Peter Q.. and Whaley, Kenneth, Does the United States Spend Enough on Public Schools?. Available at SSRN:... Read more
Posted on 22 February 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Claude 3.5 Sonata Describes a Japanese Maple in the Fall
What’s in this photo? This image shows a Japanese maple tree (Acer palmatum) with striking red and burgundy-colored leaves. The leaves have the characteristic... Read more
Posted on 21 February 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: Table-top Views
Posted on 21 February 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
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I’ve Gotten a New Computer, My 10th Since 1981
I bought my first computer in the spring of 1981; took out a small bank loan to get it. It was a North Star Horizon. “A what?” you ask. A North Star Horizon. Read more
Posted on 21 February 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
On the Explicit Construction of Cognitive Ontology: From “salt” to “sodium...
I have long used the conceptual difference between “salt” and “sodium chloride” to illustrate the idea of conceptual ontology. Except for impurities in... Read more
Posted on 20 February 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
My Mother and Her Sewing
This tweet by Miriam Posner reminded me of my mother’s sewing skills, which were considerable: One thing my mom used to do every year is sew me an outfit for th... Read more
Posted on 20 February 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Seeds of a New World?
Posted on 19 February 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
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Matt Yglesias: "America’s Constitutional Democracy is Going to Collapse." (2015)
That's the opening sentence of an article Yglesias published in Vox in 2015, American democracy is doomed. The article continues: Some day — not tomorrow, not... Read more
Posted on 19 February 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Revision in the Wild: SOL Gets Over
Posted on 19 February 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
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America the Cruel: First the Immigrants, Then Their Neighbors, Then Your...
This video of deportation is from the OFFICIAL WHITE HOUSE account on X: ASMR: Illegal Alien Deportation Flight đŸ”Š pic.twitter. Read more
Posted on 19 February 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Peer Review Penalizes Scientific Risk Taking.
Pierre Azoulay Wesley H. Greenblatt, Does Peer Review Penalize Scientific Risk Taking? Evidence from NIH Grant Renewals, NBER Working Papers, February 2025. Read more
Posted on 18 February 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Next Major AI Breakthrough, Part 1: Understanding How LLMs Work Internally
It’s not clear to me when we date the current breakthrough in AI. Is it Alexnet in 2012, the origin of the transformer in 2017 (? Read more
Posted on 18 February 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Why Don’t People Dress Up to Go Out Anymore?
by Vanessa Friedman, New York Times, 2.17.25. This lack of formality, or interest in occasion wear, has prompted some complaining, especially among those in... Read more
Posted on 17 February 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Cybertrucks for the State Department? Hell No! Can You Say "corruption"? Heck...
I remember when I first saw pictures of Musk's cybertruck: Yuck!! That is one ug ug ug ugly piece of pseudo-futuristic machinery. But who knows? Maybe it's... Read more
Posted on 17 February 2025 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY