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 ( 6484 )
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Attridge And Staten 3: Formal Features of The Sick Rose
When I began this series of posts I noted that I have long favored an austere approach to texts, but rather than think of “reading” of any kind – “close”,... Read more
Posted on 30 December 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The End of Science, Redux
John Horgan's 1996 book, The End of Science, has been republished. Horgan discusses it with Robert Wright: Here's my essay review, Pursued by Knowledge in a... Read more
Posted on 30 December 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Japan and Korea Reach Agreement About "comfortwormn"
Writing in The New York Timea, Choe Sang-Hun reports: SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea and Japan announced on Monday that they had reached a “final and... Read more
Posted on 28 December 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Falling Apart in Philly
It's been a slog these past couple weeks. Lots of good things happening, blot posts I like, the Arches project heating up, other things. But still, the energy... Read more
Posted on 27 December 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Attridge and Staten 2: The Sick Rose
In my first post [1] I commented on Attridge and Staten’s conception of minimal reading in “Reading for the Obvious: A Conversation” [2]. Read more
Posted on 23 December 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Attridge and Staton 1: What is Minimal Reading?
A professor of mine from graduate school, Charlie Altieri, just suggest I might like: Dereck Attridge and Henry Staten, The Craft of Poetry: Dialogues on Minima... Read more
Posted on 21 December 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
"Comfort Women" and the Japanese State
Japan annexed Korea in 1910 and occupied it though the end of World War II. During the war tens to hundreds of thousands of women were forced into sex slavery... Read more
Posted on 19 December 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Has Physics Outgrown Popperian Falsification?
Physics has been in trouble for awhile because theories (e.g. string theory in all its forms) now seem to be beyond empirical test. What to do? Is Popper out an... Read more
Posted on 18 December 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Friday Fotos: The Return of Shaky-Cam
Posted on 18 December 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Literary Studies from a Martian Point of View: An Open Letter to Charlie Altieri
I of course, am the Martian, a conceit I’ll explain in due course. I took a course in modern poetry with Charlie Altieri in the fall of 1974, my second year at... Read more
Posted on 17 December 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Nowhere to Run, Nowhere to Hide
As I've said previously, one of the arguments about posting to Academia.edu is that one shouldn't because, CAPITALISM! Alas, capitalism is pervasive. Read more
Posted on 17 December 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
To Academia.edu Or Not Academia.edu, That is the Question
There's a debate going on about whether or not scholars should participate in Academia.edu. The case against it is: because, capitalism! Read more
Posted on 16 December 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
YouTube Success Can Be a Financial Trap
Gaby Dunn in Fusion: Allison and I have turned down products for all kinds of reasons—the CEO made sexist comments; it isn’t something we’d really use, like... Read more
Posted on 15 December 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Wind and Chance, Design and Mechanism, in The Wind Rises
I’ve mentioned the film’s title in other posts, but Miyazaki is so insistent on it that I decided it required a post of its own. But not entirely its own. Read more
Posted on 15 December 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Merelogical Fallacy in Neuroscience
J Exp Anal Behav. 2005 Nov; 84(3): 683–692. doi: 10.1901/jeab.2005.83-05 PMCID: PMC1389787 Naming Our Concerns about Neuroscience: A Review of Bennett and... Read more
Posted on 15 December 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Singing Delays the Onset of Infant Distress
Mariève Corbeil, Sandra E. Trehub, Isabelle Peretz. Singing Delays the Onset of Infant Distress. Infancy, 1–19, 2015. Copyright © International Congress of... Read more
Posted on 14 December 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
The Time as Come for a Department of Peace
Over at 3 Quarks Daily I’ve posted The United States Needs a Department of Peace. The idea was first proposed in 1793 by Dr. Benjamin Rush, one of the signers o... Read more
Posted on 14 December 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Net Buzz and Hate Crimes
Evan Soltas and Seth Stephens-Davidowitz writing in The New York Times: Hate crimes may seem chaotic and unpredictable, a consequence of random neurons that... Read more
Posted on 14 December 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Everyday Life in Germany During WWII
Nikolaus Wachsmann reviews The German War: A Nation Under Arms, 1939-45 (2015) by Nicholas Stargardt in The Guardian. Most Germans did not want war in 1939. Read more
Posted on 12 December 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY -
Is America Obsessed with Fame? And Does That Play a Causal Role in Mass...
Stephanie Pappas at Live Science: Gun ownership can't be the entire story, though, given that overall violent crime is decreasing. There seems to be something... Read more
Posted on 11 December 2015 CULTURE, PHILOSOPHY, SOCIETY