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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How the Word "tea" Spread Throughout the World from China
A Map of How the Word "Tea" Spread Across the World https://t.co/12g9g76Jpx via @openculture pic.twitter.com/XcvnN8mgJB — twheidmusic (@twheidmusic) November... Read more
Posted on 09 November 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Reading the Human Swarm 6: The Great Chain of Being
In his fourteenth chapter Moffett covers one of my hobby horses, though I’m sure that’s not why he did it: The Great Chain of Being. Read more
Posted on 08 November 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A Mid-19th Century Japanese History of America
A Japanese Illustrated History of America (1861): Features George Washington Punching Tigers, John Adams Slaying Snakes Other Fantastic Scenes... Read more
Posted on 08 November 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Why the West is WEIRD – The Nuclear Family and the Medieval Catholoic Church
WEIRD = W.E.I.R.D = Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic – which, as you may know, has been a term of art in the human sciences since 2010. Read more
Posted on 08 November 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: A Safari into Midtown Psychedelia [the Hallucinating City?]
Wednesday morning I headed into Manhattan for a meeting on W44th St., just off Times Square in the theater district. I took my camera with me so I could catch... Read more
Posted on 08 November 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
One Candle, a Thousand Points of Light: An Online Discussion of the /Xanadu/ Mem...
In January of 2006 I participated in an online discussion of Franco Moretti’s Graphs, Trees, Maps (2007) that took place at a now-defunct blog, The Valve. Read more
Posted on 07 November 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Tyler Cowen Interviews Ted Gioia
Conversations with Tyler #79, 2019. Music, memory, society COWEN: Let’s start with some questions about music. Do you think our collective memory from music is... Read more
Posted on 07 November 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Plants & Midtown in Silhouette + Sun
Posted on 07 November 2019
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Maria Farrell Has a Quick Take on Lord of the Flies [boarding School Brutality]
Maria Farrell, England’s ruling pathology: Boarding School Syndrome, Crooked Timber: George Monbiot writes movingly about how the habit of Britain’s (well,... Read more
Posted on 07 November 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Z on Neoliberalism [from a Discussion Started by John Quiggin]
At Crooked Timber, What, if anything, is neoliberalism? Quiggin: The core of the neoliberal program is (i) to remove the state altogether from ‘non-core’... Read more
Posted on 06 November 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
2020 Twitter-seeing: Eff the Elites
In many ways the distrust of experts is due to the manipulations of both sides of politics against expert advice. This is why we need progressive parties, and t... Read more
Posted on 06 November 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Hallucinated City: Austerity
Posted on 06 November 2019
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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It's the Story, Stupid, Not the Numbers – Shiller's Narrative Economics [those...
Steve LeVine, The Economist Who Wants to Ditch Math, Marker, Nov. 5, 2019. Two decades ago, before the dotcom bust, economist Robert Shiller told peers that... Read more
Posted on 06 November 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Scorsese on Cinema Vs. Theme Parks (Marvel Movies)
re Scorsese: remember that consensus narrative forms/texts (e.g. comix movies) are inherently conservative but *can* do important cultural work, though by... Read more
Posted on 05 November 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
A Short Post in My Ongoing Series About Why I Find Most anti-AI Arguments to Be...
My basic complaint about such arguments (by, e.g., Dreyfus, Searle, see my most recent post on this topic) is that they don’t engage with the actual techniques... Read more
Posted on 05 November 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Annals of Machine Intelligence: Play-by-play Commentary About Cat-on-field [the...
Kevin Harlan's Westwood One radio call of the cat on the field is, as you might expect, an all-time great call. How much of a pro is Harlan? He worked a... Read more
Posted on 05 November 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Fishboat on Moonlit Sea
" Fishboat on Moonlit Sea " : Koho Shoda (1871-1946) Fine Art Japanese Painting sera d'autunno : la solitudine è più grande dell'anno scorso Yosa Buson ~ Haikü ... Read more
Posted on 05 November 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Are Facebook and Google State Actors?
That's a very good question indeed, and Jed Rubenfeld asks it in Lawfare: In 1924, concerned about monopolization in the radio industry, the secretary of... Read more
Posted on 04 November 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The King, Part III: Mano-a-mano, for the Trump Era [Media Notes 15]
I'd say the latter. — Adam Roberts (@arrroberts) November 3, 2019 Once more unto the breach! As it were. As I pointed out in the first post in this series, The... Read more
Posted on 04 November 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Skyways, from Yesterday's Walks
Posted on 04 November 2019
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
