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 ( 7846 )
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A Quick Note on the Future of Literary Studies [hot off the Press!]
I’ve been participating some interesting discussions on Twitter, yesterday about computational criticism, today about fan fiction. Read more
Posted on 22 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Twists of Light [RGB]
Posted on 22 December 2019
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Irma La Douce [Media Notes 27]
I watched Irma la Douce (“Irma the Sweet”), from 1963, a couple of days ago. It stars Shirley McLaine in the title role of a Parisian street-walker and Jack... Read more
Posted on 22 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
What If "Star Wars" Hadn't Expanded into a Behemoth Franchise?
Tim Kreider, What if ‘Star Wars’ Was Just a Movie?, The NYTimes, December 20, 2019, The premise: The release of the latest, and allegedly last, installment in... Read more
Posted on 21 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
In What Sense is an Electronic Digital Computer a Machine?
When it first began in the 1950s the task of programing a computer to translate text from one natural language into another was simply called machine... Read more
Posted on 21 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
At the Edge of Civilization [three Views]
Posted on 21 December 2019
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act is Not Primarily About Deceny at...
Congress is currently debating about whether or not and, if so, how to alter the provisions of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Why? Read more
Posted on 21 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Heart of Darkness on Playhouse 90 [Media Notes 26]
This is a strange adaptation of Conrad’s novella that appeared on the CBS anthology series, Playhouse 90, in 1958. Boris Karloff is trader Kurtz; he ‘goes... Read more
Posted on 20 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: The Pressure of Light [The Hallucinated City]
Posted on 20 December 2019
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Dutch Government Required to Reduce Dutch Emissions in 2020 by a Minimum of 25%...
🌍 Breaking news:The Netherlands Supreme Court has delivered a groundbreaking decision that confirms that individual governments must do their fair... Read more
Posted on 20 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Second Secularization and the Decline of the Humanities [Simon During]
Simon During, Losing Faith in the Humanities, The Chronicle Review, December 18, 2019. ... in the West, secularization has happened not once but twice. Read more
Posted on 19 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Decline of the Humanities [some Suggestive and Illustrative Images]?
Posted on 19 December 2019
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Cross-cultural Semantics of Emotion: Variation Around Universal Themes
My perspective in @sciencemagazine Mapping words reveals emotional diversity https://t.co/33xX9rFrZH https://t.co/zKCTx2QQVc — Asifa Majid (@asifa_majid)... Read more
Posted on 19 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
AI at Its Best, Pratfalls and All [the Common Sense Problem is the Resistance...
Once again Mark Liberman presents us with an example of modern AI at its best, pratfalls and all, Mrs. Transformer-XL Tittlemouse, December 18, 2019. It is abou... Read more
Posted on 19 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Those Were the days...Bette Midler at The Continental Baths
Bob Schulenberg, Schulenberg’s Page: Bette, Barbra, and Buzzy, New York Social Diary, December 19, 2019. Back in the day Midler performed: on the Upper West Sid... Read more
Posted on 19 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Further Militarization of Space is Underway
The House has passed a bill establishing 6th branch of the US military: a Space Force. We are militarizing space! Yet nobody seems to be registering it much.... Read more
Posted on 18 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Grass, Two Real (organic), One Plastic
Posted on 18 December 2019
CULTURE,
PHILOSOPHY,
SOCIETY
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Bleg: When Did Male Friendship [in America] Lose Its Warmth?
I'm moving this to the head of the queue because it's relevant to a post Tyler Cowen has just posted containing travel notes about Scandanavian culture.... Read more
Posted on 18 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
What I'm Thinking is That Global High Tech Communication Absolutely SHREDS a...
Matt Stoller, Google's Dangerous Monopoly-Based Foreign Policy, BIG, Dec 17, 2019: There’s something of a parallel to what Google is doing to Turkey, and it’s i... Read more
Posted on 17 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Work Song – Born to Groove
We must appreciate the precision of manual labor that is required to build pic.twitter.com/ahka8chytL — Vala Afshar (@ValaAfshar) December 17, Read more
Posted on 17 December 2019 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY
