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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Horgan’s The End of Science, a Reconsideration, Part 6: A Million Points of Ligh...
Twenty-five years ago, in The End of Science, John Horgan argued that science is spinning its wheels, that there are no more “cataclysmic” insights to be had,... Read more
Posted on 27 April 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Purple Dialectics, the Urban Pastoral [Matisse]
Posted on 27 April 2021
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Origins of the Alphabet in the Levant, a Recent Discovery at Tel Lachish
From Victor Mair in Language Log. Candida Moss, Archaeologists Think They’ve Found Missing Link in Origin of the Alphabet, The Daily Beast, Updated Apr. 25, 202... Read more
Posted on 27 April 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Whatever Infrastructure Is, We Want More [and We Want It Now]
Eric Klinenberg, Infrastructure Isn’t Really About Roads. It’s About the Society We Want. NYTimes, April 26, 2021. The Republican criticism is disingenuous:... Read more
Posted on 27 April 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Flowers Red Yellow Purple Orange White
Posted on 26 April 2021
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Oh Why Oh Why Don’t Critics Describe the Text Itself? [deaf, Dumb, and Blind,...
I was looking through the most recent volume of NLH and came across an essay that had description in the title, not once, but twice. Read more
Posted on 26 April 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Coming Attractions: Our Future AI Overlords, NOT
Had so much fun watching this students' #unessay project, which uses the Sims to think through some of the questions about AI we discussed this semester—her... Read more
Posted on 26 April 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Analyze This! A Bit from Seinfeld’s Book “Is This Anything?”
Jerry Seinfeld’s published a new book, Is this Anything?, in which he publishes every joke he’s ever written, from first to last. As you may know. Read more
Posted on 24 April 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Hoboken, on the North Side of Town
Posted on 24 April 2021
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Once Again, Time to Sort Things out [music, Phil of Science, Jokes, Description]
Thinking is tough. And when you are interested in a variety of things, it gets confusing. How do you keep all the balls in the air? Read more
Posted on 24 April 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
So Much for the Competitive Marketplace [it Took a Woman to Call the Bluff]
Zachary D. Carter, The Woman Who Shattered the Myth of the Free Market, NYTimes, April 24, 2021. Back in the old days, before World War II: Marshallian economic... Read more
Posted on 24 April 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Keep It Going, the Modern Psychedelic Renaissance
"The center is being created to “ensure that the momentum created by the modern psychedelic renaissance is sustained,” according to NYU psychiatry professor... Read more
Posted on 24 April 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Born to Groove, Kids and Music 3: Henry Lau Has a Good Heart & Knows How to...
Who is Henry Lau? His mother is from Taiwan and his father is from Hong King. Henry, as he is generally known, was born in 1989 and raised in Toronto. Read more
Posted on 23 April 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: Leaves and Blossoms
Posted on 23 April 2021
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Harold Bloom on Shakespeare's Greatness
The late Harold Bloom was a bardolator without peer, so some have claimed. Whether he was the best I do not know, but bardolator he surely was. He devoted two... Read more
Posted on 23 April 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Governors Island in Black and White, I.e. Grayscale
Posted on 23 April 2021
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Horgan’s The End of Science, a Reconsideration, Part 5: Mind-culture Coevolution
Horgan has suggested that we are facing the end of science in the sense that science has by now laid down the basic foundations of the world and that, while... Read more
Posted on 23 April 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Wiring Diagram of the Visual Cortex
A recent wiring diagram of the visual cortex - a little easier to read than the classic Felleman and van Essen (1991) https://t.co/rLPCfP1Otw pic.twitter. Read more
Posted on 22 April 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Tulip, Dialectical X Factor
Posted on 22 April 2021
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Iconicity and Diachronic Language Change
Paper with Padraic Monaghan: stable words are higher in iconicity, longer in length, and earlier acquired during development. but the role of frequency and... Read more
Posted on 21 April 2021 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
