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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Malaysia's $100B Forest City Built on Four Artificial Islands
As far as I can tell literary studies will remain committed to pre-computational intellectual formations for the foreseeable future and... In the early 1970s I... Read more
Posted on 18 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Problem of Economic Growth: Cultural Disconnects in the Developing World
Here’s a conversation between Tyler Cowen and Paul Krugman: I’m interested in remarks starting at about 23:25. Krugman is speaking: Paul Krugman: In the end we... Read more
Posted on 17 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
80/20 Strikes Again: Self-driving Cars Are "Way in the Future" [He Had High...
Neal E. Boudette, Despite High Hopes, Self-Driving Cars Are ‘Way in the Future’, NYTimes, July 17, 2019. Detroit and Silicon Valley where shooting for 2019. 201... Read more
Posted on 17 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Cultural Evolution of Units of Measure
Kensy Cooperrider, Dedre Gentner, The career of measurement, Cognition 191 (2019) 103941, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2019.04.011. Abstract Units as the... Read more
Posted on 17 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Not "climb Every Mountain", but Inspiring in Its Own Way
Turn around and take a look. Read more
Posted on 16 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Tenure Track Faculty Are Captives of Higher Ed
Austan Goolsbee, Chad Syverson, Monopsony Power in Higher Education: A Tale of Two Tracks, NBER Working Paper No. 26070, Issued in July 2019. Abstract: This... Read more
Posted on 16 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Elaine Sturtevant, Copycat with Wit and Verve
From the NYTimes: Known professionally by her surname, Elaine Sturtevant (b. Lakewood, Ohio, 1924; d. 2014) began “repeating” the works of other artists in 1964... Read more
Posted on 15 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
This NTEL Piece is So Dope I'm Giving It to You Twice [#graffiti #NTEL #GVM003]
Posted on 15 July 2019
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Effects of Energy Increase in Technological Evolution
This is another excerpt from David Hays, The Evolution of Technology Through Four Cognitive Ranks (1995). This is from Chapter 3, “ENERGY”, section 3.7... Read more
Posted on 15 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
It's a Cat World
#HappyCaturday Artwork by Japanese Illustrator Mono Kubo (@13033303) pic.twitter.com/sf498os3yT — 41 Strange (@41Strange) July 13, Read more
Posted on 14 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Artificial "scientist" Makes New Discoveries in a Pile of Old Scientific...
Madeleine Gregory, AI Trained on Old Scientific Papers Makes Discoveries Humans Missed, Vice, July 9, 2019: Using just the language in millions of old scientifi... Read more
Posted on 14 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Sita Chronicles
This post lists my various work on Nina Paley’s Sita Sings the Blues, from my initial review in The Valve, to the post on cultural evolution which featured it,... Read more
Posted on 14 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Boats on the Hudson
Posted on 14 July 2019
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Post 6000 Here on New Savanna – My Oh My, How Time Flies!
My first post at New Savanna went up on April 14, 2010. It consisted of a single Mimi Eunice strip by Nina Paley and was called Pay Up. If you follow the... Read more
Posted on 13 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Is Netflix Killing the Movie Biz in Order Gain Market Share and Capture...
Matt Stoller has a very interesting article on the fate of movies in the streaming era, The Slow Death of Hollywood, July 9, 2019. Read more
Posted on 12 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: Dinner at the Malibu Diner, and a Short Walk Afterward [#5998]
The Malibu Diner is, say, four blocks from my apartment. I eat there, oh, every other week. They know me. Once I forget to bring my wallet. Whoops! No problem,... Read more
Posted on 12 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Beyond Borders: Complex Identies and Social Networking in the Quinceañera of Rub...
M. Sidury Christiansen, "Listisimo para los #XVdeRubi:" Constructing a chronotope as a shared imagined experience in Twitter to enact Mexicanness outside of... Read more
Posted on 12 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Teaching Kids to Read
From Natalie Wexler, Elementary Education Has Gone Terribly Wrong, The Atlantic, August 2019: What if the best way to boost reading comprehension is not to dril... Read more
Posted on 11 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Kisangani 2150, Or Reconstructing Civilization on a New Model
You see what I’m doing, don’t you? Kisangani 2150 is obviously a play on New York 2140; it’s a science fiction novel set ten years after New York 2140. Why ten... Read more
Posted on 10 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Nollywood Millionaire
This is another import from The Valve, from March 2009. The post surely deserves an update†, but I don't have time for that now. Read more
Posted on 10 July 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
