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 ( 6451 )
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Peak Paper
Over at Crooked Timber John Quiggin has a post on peak paper: In 2013, the world reached Peak Paper. World production and consumption of paper reached its... Read more
Posted on 22 February 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Writing Kanji on the Air is Even Better Practice Than Writing on Paper
About the intersection of visual and motor space in writing: Margaret Thomas, Air Writing as a Technique for the Acquisition of Sino-Japanese Characters by... Read more
Posted on 22 February 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
More Obama/Seinfeld & Grace, w/ a Michael Richards Coda
I can’t stop thinking about that coffee conversation between Obama and Seinfeld. But let me come at it sideways. Somewhere on YouTube there’s an interview with... Read more
Posted on 21 February 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Obama, Seinfeld, Performing, and Metaphysical Grace
Back in 2012 Jerry Seinfeld started a web series called “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee”. In each episode he chats with a comedian about whatever, which... Read more
Posted on 20 February 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Attridge and Staten 7: Wilfred Owen’s "Futility" and the Issue of Historical...
Attridge and Staten worked with Wilfred Owen’s Futility as a way of examining the question of historical context. Here’s the poem: Move him into the sun—... Read more
Posted on 19 February 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: Some of Wayquay's Stuff, Natural and Sutpenatural
Posted on 19 February 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Persistence of Attitudes Rooted in Slavery
The Political Legacy of American Slavery Avidit Acharya, Matthew Blackwell, and Maya Sen February 16, 2016 Forthcoming, Journal of Politics Abstract We show tha... Read more
Posted on 18 February 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Action at a Distance: Dependency Sensitivity in a New World Primate
Biology Letters Andrea Ravignani, Ruth-Sophie Sonnweber, Nina Stobbe, W. Tecumseh Fitch Published 13 November 2013.DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2013. Read more
Posted on 17 February 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Human Affective Project
From the project website: There are two important issues in affective neuroscience that are creating challenges for researchers in the field The first issue is... Read more
Posted on 16 February 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
How Many Degrees of Separation?
As many of you know, the good folks at Facebook have been investigating the "degrees of separation" issue in human social networks. Read more
Posted on 12 February 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Foots – Organic White: Intimations of Things to Come
Posted on 12 February 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Further Thoughts on Underwood Et Al. on ‘revolution’ in Cultural Change
I’ve got some further thoughts on Underwood et all, You say you found a revolution, over at The Stone and the Shell. What is time? What I think is that the... Read more
Posted on 11 February 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Historical Direction and Popular Music, a Reply to Underwood Et Al. (Feb 2016)
Over at The Stone and the Shell there’s an interesting post by Ted Underwood, Hoyt Long, Richard Jean So, and Yuancheng Zhu, You say you found a revolution. It’... Read more
Posted on 08 February 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Three Moments in America’s Conversation on Race
Over at 3 Quarks Daily, my piece for February. Here's my introduction: In Playing in the Dark, a set of essays on race in American literature, Toni Morrison is... Read more
Posted on 08 February 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: How About Some Birds?
Posted on 05 February 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Universal Semantic Structure?
Hyejin Youna, Logan Suttond, Eric Smithc, Cristopher Moorec, Jon F. Wilkinsc,f, Ian Maddiesong, William Croft, and Tanmoy Bhattacharyac. On the universal... Read more
Posted on 05 February 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
100 Milestones in Modern Comedy
I just spent a couple hours working my way through The 100 Jokes That Shaped Modern Comedy, by Jesse David Fox over at Vulture. Read more
Posted on 05 February 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Wikipedia Has Problems with Editors-for-hire
Edit conflicts are old hat for Wikipedia. But what happens when people hire themselves out to PR firms whose clients have a financial interest in what... Read more
Posted on 03 February 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Attridge and Staten 6: Some Notes on Milton’s Solemn Music
Continuing my investigation of Dereck Attridge and Henry Staten, The Craft of Poetry: Dialogues on Minimal Interpretation, Routledge 2015. Read more
Posted on 02 February 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
El Sistema Isn't the Feel-good Progressive Program You Think It is
Lawrence Cripp, "All that Matters is How Good It Sounds: An Interview with the Former El Sistema Violinist Luigi Mazzocchi," VAN Magazine: Despite my positive... Read more
Posted on 31 January 2016 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY