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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How We Move Reveals Who We Are: Movement Signatures
Gretchen Reynolds, Something in the Way We Move, NYTimes, Oct 23, 2019: Each of us appears to have a unique way of moving, a physical “signature” that is ours... Read more
Posted on 29 October 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Retrograde Sentiments [found in a Demolished Building in Jersey City]
Posted on 29 October 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
What is Computation? That is to Say, What Do I Mean by Computation? [putting...
As far as I know, the nature of computation is still under investigation. I’m not really qualified to or in fact interested in addressing the question in its... Read more
Posted on 28 October 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Three Godzillas in Jersey City
Posted on 28 October 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Enchanted by Meaning – That’s Been the Fate of American Criticism, but Elsewhere?
Though, to be blunt, in my more polemical moods I’m inclined to think that “besotted” is a better word to characterize academic literary criticism’s engagement... Read more
Posted on 28 October 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Value of Knowing That Something is Possible, Even If You Don't Yourself...
Richard Jones, Rock climbing and the economics of innovation: I think one kind of knowledge is particularly important in climbing – and maybe in other areas of... Read more
Posted on 27 October 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Kurtz as MacGuffin, Or: Why Trash Him Before We Meet Him?
In an earlier post about Heart of Darkness I said: But, and this is crucial, he wanted us have a précis of Kurtz’s story before we finally meet him in the last... Read more
Posted on 27 October 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Lakota America – Beyond Little Bighorn and Beyond Wounded Knee, Still Vital
Writing in the NYTimes Parul Sehgal reviews Pekka Hamalainen, Lakota America, A New History of Indigenous Power, (Yale 2019): All nations deserve to have their... Read more
Posted on 27 October 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Protests Have Been on the Rise Since the 1950s, but Success Rate Has Been Doing...
Max Fisher and Amanda Taub, The Interpreter, NYTimes, Oct. 26 2019: The world is changing in ways that make people likelier to seek sweeping political change... Read more
Posted on 26 October 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Three Cheers for The Kominsky Method, and for Grace and Frankie as Well [Media...
Why? Because they’re about old people, and they depict us [who me? old? well I’m 71] as having interesting and tricky lives, and as growing and looking ahead.... Read more
Posted on 26 October 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Computational Envelope of Language – Once More into the Breach
Time to saddle-up and once more ride my current hobby horse, or one of them at least. In this case, the idea that natural language is the simplest aspect of... Read more
Posted on 26 October 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Martin Luther King: "On the Importance of Jazz"
Listen to these clips as read by artists in the San Francisco Bay area (2 minutes): From Open Culture: As jazz musicians embraced the movement, so the movement... Read more
Posted on 26 October 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Politics on YouTube: Rar-right Viewership Peaked in 2017
Kevin Munger Joseph Phillips, A Supply and Demand Framework for YouTube Politics, Preprint, October 1, 2019. Abstract: Youtube is the most used social... Read more
Posted on 26 October 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Lost...amid the Trees...delicious
Posted on 26 October 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The King’s Wayward Eye: For Claude Lévi-Strauss
I originally published this at The Valve, which seems to have disappeared from the web, in November of 2009, roughly two weeks after Lévi-Strauss had died on... Read more
Posted on 25 October 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: Night in Jersey City
Posted on 25 October 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Given That Some AI Programs Can Be Used for Evil Ends, What Are Responsible...
Rebecca Crootof, Artificial Intelligence Research Needs Responsible Publication Norms, Lawfare, Oct. 24, 2019: After nearly a year of suspense and controversy,... Read more
Posted on 24 October 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Tap Dancing with Gene Kelly and Sugar Ray Robinson
Enjoy Gene Kelly as he presents Dancing Is a Man's Game on Omnibus on 12/21/1958. This performance features Mr. Kelly dancing with sports legends Edward... Read more
Posted on 24 October 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
INEQUALITY!! Sparks Rising Tide of Protests World-wide [but the Success Rate is...
Declan Walsh and Max Fisher, From Chile to Lebanon, Protests Flare Over Wallet Issues, NYTimes, Oct 23, 2019. LONDON — In Chile, the spark was an increase in... Read more
Posted on 24 October 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Henry Farrell on Weaponized Interdependence & Regulating the Internet [Tyler...
Tyler Cowen converses with (Crooked Timber's) Henry Farrell on this that and the other, including the internet: COWEN: Now, we’re chatting in early October,... Read more
Posted on 23 October 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY