Bbenzon
Description
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 ( 7356 )
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Red, Green, and White (leaves and Flowers)
Posted on 19 January 2022
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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It Seems That AI Has Solved Poker
Keith Romer, How A.I. Conquered Poker, NYTimes Magazine, 1.18.22. Von Neumann: Using his own simplified version of the game, in which two players were randomly... Read more
Posted on 19 January 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Dick Macksey's Library Made the NYTimes Today (1.16.22)
Photo: Will Kirk/Johns Hopkins University Dick Macksey’s library made the NYTimes today. Macksey died in July of 2019, but his library, or rather a simulacrum o... Read more
Posted on 16 January 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
"Don't Look Up" is a Hit [Media Notes 65d]
Cara Buckley, “Don’t Just Watch: Team Behind ‘Don’t Look Up’ Urges Climate Action,” NYTimes, 1.11.22: After the film premiered in December, climate scientists... Read more
Posted on 12 January 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
"Powers of Ten" Updated
Powers of Ten, the short 1968 documentary by Ray and Charles Eames has been updated to reflect current knowledge: Note, however, that while the original... Read more
Posted on 11 January 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Willard Quine on Limits to Knowing
It seems to me, off-hand, this Quine's discussion has some bearing on John Horgan's concerns about the end of science. It may also have some bearing on the... Read more
Posted on 07 January 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Don’t Read "Don't Look Up" Too Narrowly [Matt Yglesias] [Media Notes 65c]
The film’s creators say it’s a satire about climate change. But what do they know? Yglesias says: If you insist on listening to the creators and seeing it as... Read more
Posted on 04 January 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Red Branches, Lion's Head, and the Peeping Sun
Posted on 04 January 2022
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Fantasia and Transnational Film Culture
I'm bumping this 2012 post to the top of the queue primarily for the argument (starting halfway through) it makes about film culture being fundamentally... Read more
Posted on 04 January 2022 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Kara Swisher Liked "Don't Look Up" [So Did I]
From the very end her year-end column in The NYTimes, Dec. 30, 2021: But I digress: The reason I liked the “The Matrix Resurrections” and “Don’t Look Up” is... Read more
Posted on 31 December 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: (Still) More from Longwood Gardens
Posted on 31 December 2021
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Richard Hanania in Search of a Way to Make Sense of US Foreign Policy.
US foreign policy is unintelligible because 1) it's irrational, and 2) we're using the wrong intellectual tools to understand it. Read more
Posted on 30 December 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Tyler Cowen Thinks Segregating School Children by Age is a Bad Idea [I Agree]
From the year-end review of Conversations with Tyler: HOLMES: Next question from @gasca. Asked a number of ones. I think the one I’ll pick is, “We talked about... Read more
Posted on 30 December 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
What’s the Opposite of Substrate Independence?
I suppose we could call it “substrate dependence” or “substrate linkage,” but this really isn’t about the term, it’s about the substance. Read more
Posted on 29 December 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Don’t Look Up [Media Notes 65]
Don’t Look Up, as you’ve probably heard, is a weird apocalyptic comedy in which a large comet acts as an allegorical stand-in for climate change. The human... Read more
Posted on 29 December 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Twigs in the Wild
Posted on 29 December 2021
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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The Energetics of Uniquely Human Subsistence Strategies
Humans afford the high energetic costs of life not through energy-saving adaptations—such as bipedalism or sophisticated tool use—but by acquiring energy at a... Read more
Posted on 29 December 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Misbehaving Flowers
Posted on 28 December 2021
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Leroy Jethro Gibbs – Beyond the Edge (#NCIS) [Media Notes 64]
Leroy Jethro Gibbs is the central character of NCIS, one of the longest running and most popular shows on network TV. It premiered in 2003, has just completed... Read more
Posted on 28 December 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Berries and Small Cacti at Longwood Gardens
Posted on 28 December 2021
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
