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 ( 6430 )
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How the Current Situation in Hong Kong Came About
Richard C. Bush, How Hong Kong Got to This Point, Lawfare, September 17, 2019. An Imperfect, But Workable, Hybrid To understand the current situation, it’s... Read more
Posted on 17 September 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Japan × 5
"Five Japans" from 1936 is another masterpiece by one of the greatest cartographers of the 20th century, Richard Edes Harrison. Source: https://t.co/EFKzmF94OA... Read more
Posted on 17 September 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Houston, We Have a Problem – Reproducibility in Neural Net Research
Gregory Barber, Artificial Intelligence Confronts a 'Reproducibility' Crisis, Wired, 9.16.19: When Facebook attempted to replicate AlphaGo, the system... Read more
Posted on 17 September 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
What Does Evolution Have to Teach Us About Shakespeare’s Reputation? [founder...
For some decades now I’ve been a bit puzzled by Shakespeare’s status. I don’t doubt that he’s good, but THAT good? Really? I mean, apparently he’s so good that... Read more
Posted on 16 September 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Let's Eat
Posted on 16 September 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Sabine Hosenfelder Debunks "tech-bro Monotheism"
Sabine Hossenfelder, Mind the Gap Between Science and Religion, Nautilus, Sept. 16, 2019. Have you heard that we may be living in a computer simulation? Read more
Posted on 16 September 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
How Music Works, Hiromi Edition
Do you want to know how music works? Watch this clip of Hiromi Uehara taking a piano lesson. Here's some quick and crude observations from an email I just sent... Read more
Posted on 16 September 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
What the Electoral College Hath Wrought, 4 "inversions" 1839-2016
In U.S. Presidential races, the popular-vote winner will lose 40% of elections decided by 2 million votes or less. Electoral College "inversions" have been... Read more
Posted on 16 September 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Soaring Brass [Mnozil Rocks Out] and Dignified Kids [Nakagurose Elementary...
I love these guys, and I love this particular clip, crude, rude, loud, and bombastic though it is. And funny too. But I particularly like the passage that start... Read more
Posted on 15 September 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Way to Peace is for American to Give up the Role of Global Bully
Stephen Wertheim, The Only Way to End ‘Endless War’, NYTimes, Sept. 14, 2019: Promises, promises: Four years ago, President Barack Obama denounced “the idea of... Read more
Posted on 15 September 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
What’s Foreign About SF from Another Culture? Is SF Inherently Cosmopolitan?...
I’m an American so by another culture I mean, well... I wouldn’t consider Adam Roberts foreign, though he’s British. I know there are some (relatively minor)... Read more
Posted on 14 September 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
How Ultra-nationalism Can Distort Your View of the World [China]
Language Log has an interesting post that contains most of a recent article from The Taiwan News (8.31.2019): "World Civilization Research Association" Read more
Posted on 14 September 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
What Used to Be Offensively Called the "Third World" Now Produces More Total...
What used to be offensively called the "Third World" (Africa/Asia/Latin America) now produces more total GDP than the "First World" (Western Europe/ US/... Read more
Posted on 13 September 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Direction of Neural Flow While Recalling Music is the Reverse of the Neural...
Yue Ding, Yang Zhang, Wenjing Zhou, Zhipei Ling, Juan Huang, Bo Hong and Xiaoqin Wang, Neural Correlates of Music Listening and Recall in the Human Brain,... Read more
Posted on 13 September 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Brains of Domestic Dog Breeds Vary According to Their Behavioral Requirements
Erin E. Hecht, Jeroen B. Smaers, William J. Dunn, Marc Kent, Todd M. Preuss and David A. Gutman, Significant neuroanatomical variation among domestic dog breeds... Read more
Posted on 13 September 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: [not So] Clean Room
Posted on 13 September 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Why Uncle Tom's Cabin is an Important Novel
Abraham Lincoln is said to have remarked that it started the Civil War. I've read it and it's powerful. Thread 1-After listening to @tylercowen recent podcast... Read more
Posted on 12 September 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A Quick Review of "orthodox" Theory in Cultural Volution
There's been a proliferation of work in cultural evolution in the past two decades. And a cultural evolution society has recently been formed. Read more
Posted on 12 September 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Happiness and Tolerance Are Linked in Urban Areas in China but Associated with...
Roy Y. J. Chua, Kenneth G. Huang, and Mengzi Jin, Mapping cultural tightness and its links to innovation, urbanization, and happiness across 31 provinces in... Read more
Posted on 12 September 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Bike Variations [night Shots]
Posted on 12 September 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY