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 ( 6433 )
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Big Brother Goes to College and He's Watching Every Step You Take
New: Colleges are tracking students' location to enforce attendance, analyze their behavior and assess their mental health. One company calculates a student's... Read more
Posted on 24 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
How Does the Architecture of the Mind Differ from the Anatomy and Physiology of...
In my first post in this series, What is the Darwinian individual in the evolution of expressive culture? – which, incidentally, wasn’t a series when I posted... Read more
Posted on 24 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Putin's Trolling Star Wars
Annalee Newitz, What Arguments About ‘Star Wars’ Say About Democracy, NYTimes, 24 Dec 2019. And a recent study by Morten Bay, a University of Southern Californi... Read more
Posted on 24 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Urban Renewal [Jersey City Wall of Fame]
Posted on 24 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
What is the Darwinian Individual in the Evolution of Expressive Culture?
Daniel Nettle recently uploaded a preprint of an article to be published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, B: Selection, adaptation,... Read more
Posted on 23 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Bayes Theorem
, and making probability intuitive, by @3blue1brown —-> https://t.co/ln5f9kxfs1 via @YouTube — Steven Strogatz (@stevenstrogatz) December 23, Read more
Posted on 23 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A Partial Guide to My Posts About Photography
Over the years I've done a number of posts about photography, mostly about my photography, but not entirely so. And a number of the posts, regardless of the... Read more
Posted on 23 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A Quick Note on the Future of Literary Studies [hot off the Press!]
I’ve been participating some interesting discussions on Twitter, yesterday about computational criticism, today about fan fiction. Read more
Posted on 22 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Twists of Light [RGB]
Posted on 22 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Irma La Douce [Media Notes 27]
I watched Irma la Douce (“Irma the Sweet”), from 1963, a couple of days ago. It stars Shirley McLaine in the title role of a Parisian street-walker and Jack... Read more
Posted on 22 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
What If "Star Wars" Hadn't Expanded into a Behemoth Franchise?
Tim Kreider, What if ‘Star Wars’ Was Just a Movie?, The NYTimes, December 20, 2019, The premise: The release of the latest, and allegedly last, installment in... Read more
Posted on 21 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
In What Sense is an Electronic Digital Computer a Machine?
When it first began in the 1950s the task of programing a computer to translate text from one natural language into another was simply called machine... Read more
Posted on 21 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
At the Edge of Civilization [three Views]
Posted on 21 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act is Not Primarily About Deceny at...
Congress is currently debating about whether or not and, if so, how to alter the provisions of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Why? Read more
Posted on 21 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Heart of Darkness on Playhouse 90 [Media Notes 26]
This is a strange adaptation of Conrad’s novella that appeared on the CBS anthology series, Playhouse 90, in 1958. Boris Karloff is trader Kurtz; he ‘goes... Read more
Posted on 20 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: The Pressure of Light [The Hallucinated City]
Posted on 20 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Dutch Government Required to Reduce Dutch Emissions in 2020 by a Minimum of 25%...
🌍 Breaking news:The Netherlands Supreme Court has delivered a groundbreaking decision that confirms that individual governments must do their fair... Read more
Posted on 20 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Second Secularization and the Decline of the Humanities [Simon During]
Simon During, Losing Faith in the Humanities, The Chronicle Review, December 18, 2019. ... in the West, secularization has happened not once but twice. Read more
Posted on 19 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Decline of the Humanities [some Suggestive and Illustrative Images]?
Posted on 19 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Cross-cultural Semantics of Emotion: Variation Around Universal Themes
My perspective in @sciencemagazine Mapping words reveals emotional diversity https://t.co/33xX9rFrZH https://t.co/zKCTx2QQVc — Asifa Majid (@asifa_majid)... Read more
Posted on 19 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY